I have tried but have not been able to verify the veracity of the story I am about to relate, but true or not, it makes a very good point.
When the USA was falling behind in the space race to the their old foes, the Russians, President Kennedy made a trip to Cape Canaveral. As he toured the facilities he asked three janitors, “What is it you do here?” The three answers were diverse and telling:
1. “Earn a living.”
2. “I pick up the trash.”
3. “Mr. President, I’m helping to put a man on the moon.”

The fabulous book Brains on Fire says:

You can’t have passion without purpose. The two are intertwined. What are you passionate about? And why are you passionate about it? Now, how does that connect with a sense of purpose? That part of you that believes you’re making a difference or standing up for something you believe in?

Perhaps it is a time to do a passion check of your employees and see how it compares with the field. Do the newbies or those with less visible roles understand the importance of having passion and purpose? Does the field feel excited when they come to your office or do they feel it is “us against them”? Maybe it is time to find out.

I remember when I was first learning how to become a network marketer my upline encouraged me try the new raisin bran. The bran was bland and the raisins tasted like sugary rocks. They were terrible and never should have passed product compliance. When I told my upline I would never buy them again, I was reminded that it didn’t taste bad, it tasted like money…what?

Let me remind all of us in direct sales that we are still in the product/service business first, not the opportunity business. The most stable companies in economically hard times are the ones who create true product value. With only a small percentage of the marketers making high commissions even in good times, remember to look for value in the product first and your opportunity will always be safe.

Unfortunately for most of us, Siggy Marvin makes us laugh, but we are forced to confront the horrors in the world at work or we risk going out of business or losing our job. Not long ago I spoke with a friend who is in the awkward position of knowing what is best for his company, but is forced to play politics to keep peace. As he described the position a colleague was taking the business, it reminded me very much of an article written by TheOnion.com. Take-Charge, Can-Do Guy Makes Horrible Decisions, is a must read for anybody confronted with overachieving numbskulls on a regular basis.

“Matthew Stuart, an enthusiastic 33-year-old junior executive at Boston Tea Market, Inc., gets things done quickly, confidently, and terribly…” So frequently when somebody is new to a team, they want to leave their mark and save the day even when they are in way over their heads. They want to be seen as the hero. They want to get the job done. Great goals, but as the old saying goes, discretion is the greater part of valor.

As I write this post, I think to myself, “Jeff, Jeff, Jeff, you are a self-admitted fanatical entrepreneur. Don’t tell the good people to play it safe. Any challenge can be overcome. No obstacle is too big. Encourage people to get out of their comfort zone and make big things happen.” Admittedly, I am an adrenaline junky, I take chances, I start new businesses and I make them work. However, I have found few people that are willing to take responsibility when things go wrong and even less people are willing to risk their own personal security for the sake of making the business work. If you are not willing to lay your salary on the line for mistakes that you initiate, rethink your strong positions.

What we typically see in most businesses is a person that comes to us with the façade of bravado who makes terrible decisions just hoping that the chips will magically fall into place by their hustle. A small sliver of experience is exaggerated into a career filled with successes. Can-do guy crawls into a metaphorical fetal position, analysis paralysis sets in, financial disaster ensues, time is lost and money poured in all the wrong places.

For you can-do people, who put everyone else in a bind, just learn from what people who work with Mathew Stuart come to think about him. “Because of his positive attitude and boundless energy, Stuart’s frequent errors in judgment are generally overlooked. ‘Everyone here really likes Matt,’ Jordan said. ‘You never really notice what an idiot he is until you’re cleaning up his mess. He loves to roll his sleeves up, get in there, and screws (I edited this word to get it PG Rated) all sorts of things up.’

Eventually Mathew will get fired if he can’t back up his hustle with results. Guess what, if you are a can-do guy that makes horrible decisions, you’ll be fired too, but not before you have waisted a bunch of time and money.

P.S.

I was informed that I am not in the habit of leaving anything on a down note. Point well taken.

Business is rough and you can get bruised. Feelings can get hurt and finances dashed.  However, part of business and life is willing to push yourself to new levels.  I encourage my employees and clients to get uncomfortable and achieve more.  There is nothing quite like overcoming your fears, just have the courage to confront your mistakes when you make them.

“Call me in the new year.” It’s a motto we entrepreneurs hear a million times this time of year. It’s as traditional as maxed out credit cards and a jolly fellow in red.

All successful entrepreneurs take the sales process seriously. Unfortunately, while our family and friends are slacking at their 9 to 5, we still have to meet payroll and pay for the expenses that come with the time of year. For an entrepreneur the holidays can make us feel like the Grinch with the added pressure of additional expenses and prospects that are more secured behind their excuses than the gold at Fort Knox.

Jeffrey Gitomer addresses the holiday stall with 11.5 lines and tactics:

1. Close on the stall line. “ What day after the first of the year would you want to take (would be most convenient to take) delivery?”

2. Firm it up, whenever it is. Ask, “When after the first of the year? Can I buy you the first breakfast of the new year?” Make a firm appointment.

3. If it’s just a callback, make the prospect write it down. Call backs must be appointed, or the other guy is never there when you call. Writing it down makes it a firm commitment.

4. Tell them about your resolutions. “ I’ve made a New Year’s resolution that I’m not going to let people like you who need our service, delay until after the first of the year. You know you need it.”

5. Offer incentives and alternatives. Invent reasons not to delay. Bill after the holiday. Order now, deliver after the holiday.

6. Question them into a corner — and close them when they get there. “What will be different after the holidays? Will anything change over the holidays that will cause you not to buy?” (Prospect’s answer — “Oh no, no, no.”) “Great!” you say, “Let’s get you order in production (service scheduled) now, and we’ll deliver it after the holiday. When were you thinking of taking delivery (beginning).”

7. Agree. Then disagree. I know what you mean…lots of people feel that way. Most don’t realize that the money wasted between now and the first of the year, will equate to a huge savings if they buy now. Are you sure you want to waste the money?

8. Get a testimonial letter. Ask someone who bought before the holidays and was glad they did to write you a two-paragraph letter. Get one paragraph about the value they received and how they originally wanted to wait. The second paragraph should be about how happy they are about your service after the sale. Similar situations are more powerful than your sales pitch.

9. Drop-in with holiday cheer. Use a small holiday plant or gift to get in the door. (No one says no to Santa — unless you live in Philadelphia. There they boo Santa.)

10. Create urgency. There’s a product or delivery back-up after the first — schedule now.

11. Be funny. Say, “So many people have said call me after the first that I’m booked until April. I do however, have a few openings before the first. How about it?” Making the other person laugh (smile) will go along way towards getting past the stall. An alternative joke is, “What holiday?”

11.5 Beg. Pleeeeaaase. I’ll be your best friend.

Gitomer always seems to have fun with the sales process. That is why he is so successful with what he does. Be bold, have fun and drink some eggnog. The season can still be fun, I just recommend you stay away from the Star Wars’ Christmas album. Nothing could quite take away from the spirit of the season than Christmas Darth Vader crooning his way through Away in a Manger.

When my Amway distributorship was in its prime, I would have case after case of soap, breakfast cereal and toilet paper delivered to my garage. It was not uncommon to have over $50,000 of product sitting where the car should be. It was exciting, but also overwhelming. I was a progressive, I wanted to use, of all crazy things…a computer spread sheet to separate and add the product costs among those coming to pick it up. Yes, even in 1995 they had spreadsheets that could add effectively. I was told by my superiors that was not duplicatable. They wanted me to use these outdated carbon copy forms (that I purchased each month from them) because not everybody had a computer or my skills to use them. By the end of the day, I had a huge stack of green carbon sheets, black fingertips and a headache. I stopped listening to their wrong advice and started using my computer again. With the computer, my math was always right again and I stopped regretting selling so many products.

When did we stop teaching our people to think for themselves? When did we stop creating a sales force that interacts with prospects instead of just making presentations?

I have four kids under the age of 12. When I come home, it seems they always are playing within ten feet of me. It makes it hard to make phone calls, but I also get to see a side of creativity that is rarely seen in the work place. I am amazed at how my house is full of dragons flying free, robots conquering inferior foes, airplanes that fly themselves and cars that break the speed of sound. When do adults stop imagineering their future? Why do adults stop using their imagination all together?

Time to stop worrying about whether you will fit in all the time. Time to start asking “why” once in a while. It is time you stop worrying more about being embarrassed and worrying more about creating something great, something special. It is time teach your people how to solve problems by letting them make some mistakes. It is time to truly lead people by getting out of their way once in a while.

It probably wasn’t the best thing to do in the office conference room, but it sure was fun.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Even for those people who are untrained in body language meanings, contradictions in body and words have a negative affect. When a person is saying one thing with their mouth and another with their body, the conversation feels awkward and insincere.  Awkward conversations will crush any perceived trust, and will doom any chance of a sale or follow up. For those trained in body language meanings, words are secondary to the message being sent by the body. When you study body language, you will be able to see clear contradictions between what a prospect is saying with their mouth and their body.

In many sales and prospecting meetings, the inexperienced salesperson or networker leaves a meeting with a prospect completely pumped about getting the sale because the prospect was saying all the right things. In reality, the only positive thing the prospective was saying was coming from his or her mouth. The prospect just wanted to get rid of the annoyance in front of her by feigning interest. The insincere words spoken by the prospect deceived the inexperienced salesperson, but with training, the salesperson could see that the prospect’s legs and arms were crossed, one hand was covering a portion of her mouth and the prospect was never able to look the perceived annoyance in the eye. An experienced salesperson and student of body language would have seen these warning signs and stopped the sales pitch to get to the bottom of the real problem or doubt. An experienced body language reader would have known that if the person did not begin to open up, this sale was doomed and a follow up would never have resulted in a sale, no matter how many times the salesperson followed up.

In The Definitive Book of Body Language we learn, “Body language is an outward reflection of a person’s emotional condition. Each gesture or movement can be a valuable key to an emotion a person may be feeling at the time.” If you begin to watch, your prospects will be telling you far more with their gestures and body then with words.

I pride myself in being able to connect with people and create enjoyable environments for productivity, but I have made some big mistakes addressing body language. I have had experiences with a person who could not stand me and it was evident whenever we met. My meetings with this person were never very comfortable no matter what I tried. In two of my meetings I made the big mistake of pointing out that the person’s arms and legs were folded and one of his hands was covering a portion of his mouth; all signals that this person did not trust me and or disliked me very much. The meetings were very uncomfortable and discomfort is a unproductive setting when you are trying to get things done. In our business dealings, this person definitely felt himself my superior, and he hated me trying to get to the bottom of his feelings during our meetings no matter how big of an impediment I felt it was toward a resolution. In fact my reads infuriated him and he was quick to remind me. I learned quickly that when a person feels he or she is your superior, be very careful pointing out that they do not look physically comfortable with how the conversation is going. Read the body language and do your best to address the problem with a different direction in the conversation. Not until you feel very comfortable with the person sitting across from you, do you point out that avoidance of eye contact and other body signals are causing a problem in the conversation.

Successful follow up meetings can be critical to your business. You owe it to yourself to avoid leaving a meeting thinking that you are further ahead than you really are. If you understand basic body signals, you will have a good idea of how the follow up will go before you even leave your first meeting. When you understand the basics, you can save yourself weeks of fruitless follow up.

• How long should you wait before you contact your prospect after a meeting?
• What did I do wrong they were so interested?
• Am I cut out for this?

Anybody who has ever read a book on sales etiquette or has experience in sales knows that the follow up is just as important as the meeting itself. As entrepreneurs enter the 21^st century is it ok to email or text the prospect, or should you just call? Even more important than how you get back with the prospect is when should you get back to the prospect? I have compiled a list of answers from some of the world’s best entrepreneurs in an attempt to give answers to when you should get back to your prospects without worrying if you are acting out of place or being a pest.

We’ll start this series of posts off with one of my personal favorites, Jeffrey Gitomer. In his book, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, Gitomer asks, “Are you a sales leader or a sales chaser?”

“Chasing your prospect too hard? People not calling you back? Pushing too hard for orders? Try running the other way – let the prospect chase you. It’s the best follow-up technique I’ve ever experienced.”

“If prospects are not returning your call, whose fault is that? You’re chasing too hard. They’re running away. You couldn’t get their interest. You couldn’t get them to chase you.

Here are some tell-tale symptoms the chase is going the wrong way:

• You’ve followed up a few times, and now you’re searching for a reason to call them – but you can’t think of one.
• You are uncomfortable about calling, you are unprepared, you have not established the needs of the prospect, you are unsure of their status, or you don’t have much rapport with the prospect (or some of each).
• You call, get their voice mai, and hang up.
• You left your best message and they didn’t call you back.
• They told you a decision would be made Tuesday, and Tuesday has come and gone.
• The prospect is giving you a bunch of lame excuses. And you are accepting them!
• And the worst symptom of all – you are blaming the prospect for you inability to generate enough interest, create enough value, or for not having a solid reason to call you back.”

If you have never read any of Gitomer’s books and you are an entrepreneur, it is time to invest in your education. The guy is funny and he can cut right through the bologna. His books are short and easy to read. If you want to learn more from one of the masters on how to get prospects’ attention and more on how to follow up with your prospects, he is a must read.

I follow many different business writers on their blogs. It is no secret, I love to read Seth Godin. However, I also love to read the posts of Marc Cenedella, CEO of TheLadders.com. In his most recent post he spoke about “The Intelligent Entrepreneur”, a new book out from author Bill Murphy. In the book, Murphy distills 10 rules of successful entrepreneurship from the stories of several Harvard Business School graduates.

Much of Cenedella’s post is below:

As I read through the stories, and looked at Bill’s rules, it struck me that there are similarities between the successful entrepreneur and the successful job-seeker. You’re both trying to create something new — a new company or a new position for yourself. You’re both faced with the emotional challenges that go with any new endeavor. There are plenty of setbacks along the way in starting a company and getting a job. And success is dependent on sticking to it and seeing it through.

So with that in mind, I thought I’d share five of Bill’s 10 rules with you and show how they apply to your job search.

#2 Find a problem, then solve it.

It’s not enough in the 21st century to simply describe yourself to future employers as “I’m a finance guy” or “I’m a saleswoman.” Particularly in this difficult economic environment, you need to let your future boss know what kind of problem you can solve for him or her. So be specific about what you bring to the table: “I’m a finance professional who specializes in Sarbanes-Oxley and really enjoys working with internationally headquartered companies to meet American regulatory requirements” or “I’m a sales professional who loves working with biotech start-ups as they go from pre-revenue to $10 mm in sales.”

Find a problem, and then let your future boss know how you will solve it.

#4 You can’t do it alone.

The job search can be a lonely endeavor and you can’t possibly make it alone. You’ll need the support of your family and friends, and being honest with them about the trials and tribulations you’re experiencing is an important part of your emotional well-being during the search. You’ll also need to rely on your colleagues and contacts, and have them on the lookout for you during your job search. (See my advice last week on this topic: “Ask for a reference, not a job.”)

Enlisting the aid of the people you know for support, advice, and connections is the way to your next great job.

#5 You must do it alone.

But as much as you’ll need to rely on family, friends and colleagues, it is ultimately going to depend on you. You’ll need to make the calls, you’ll need to do the follow-up, and you’ll need to be prepared for the interviews. When it’s 10:17 a.m. on Tuesday morning and you’re staring at the phone thinking about making that follow-up call, it’s up to you, and you alone, to pick up the phone and dial the digits. Nobody else can do it for you.

Understanding that you’ll need to make the commitment, set aside the appropriate amount of time, and then fight through our natural tendency to procrastination, is key to your success.

#8 Learn to sell.

Take your annual earnings and multiply by five. That’s the value of the product you are selling — the next five years of your labor. It’s the most important sales job you’re going to have, and you need to learn how to sell. You need to qualify the buyer — make sure they need an expensive product like you — and then explain to them the benefits they’ll get by purchasing — how you’ll help solve the problems they’re facing in their business.

Too often we can allow ourselves to slip into focusing on what I need out of the job hunt. You have to remember that it’s not about you, it’s about what your future employer needs. And you need to sell them on how you fulfill those needs better than any other candidate.

#9 Persist, persevere, prevail.

The job hunt is filled with twists and turns — moments of hope and days of despair. That’s normal. Even the most successful, polished, high-priced executives and professionals that we work with here at TheLadders have those weeks when the phone is not ringing, emails go unanswered, and the creeping doubts seem to loom larger.

It’s all part of the job-seeking process, and in order to be successful, you’ll need to overcome those difficulties. It is only persistence and perseverance that will see you through the bad days and the tough interviews. Anybody who has started a company, and everybody who goes through the job search, experience tough times. Stick to it, know that you are valuable, and you will make it through to success!

To learn the other five rules of successful entrepreneurship, I’d recommend you go pick up “The Intelligent Entrepreneur” today.

“Level 5 refers to a five-level hierarchy of executive capabilities, with Level 5 at the top. Level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. They are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves.”

One of the most advantageous aspects of writing about leadership and team building is how much I continue to learn about myself. As I analyze myself compared to the great leaders that researchers study, I am not sure if I am more like the bumbling self-absorbed Michael Scott from NBC’s the office or if I have a shot at becoming a Darwin Smith of Kimberly-Clark who turned a failing company into a Wall Street darling. Will I be Michael and buy myself a coffee mug declaring myself the “World’s Best Boss,” or will I be ferociously dedicated to my companies’ success with the humility of Smith when he said, “I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job”?

Click here to view the embedded video.

As Collins writes, “Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious-but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.”

A couple of years ago I spoke to a person who had taken over a flailing company. I was excited about her vision for the company and how she intended on motivating its depressed sales force and confused employees. I was impressed with the plan, it was innovative and superbly thought out. However, I became disheartened in the future of her plan when she told me, “Besides, if it fails, I will make a nice stack of cash trying.” Ouch.

In a fast-food world, we are applying principles of convenient and disposable to our careers and our companies. Often times jobs are looked at as simply a stepping stone to pad the resume for the next big thing. No wonder our teams are uninspired and transient.

Good to Great found that Level 4 leaders often put their ambition and legacy ahead of the business. “In over three quarters of the comparison companies (underperforming companies), we found executives who set their successors up for failure or chose weak successors, or both.” How many people are truly more concerned about their legacy instead of the true health of the company? How many business Pharaohs are more concerned about building their personal Sphinx that will last longer than the kingdom?

Building a smarter team is not easy. Becoming a Level 5 leader is even harder. Something I do know, it is imperative that we take the attitude of Darwin Smith and constantly try to learn our position better. The minute you think you have it all figured out is when your foundation will begin to crumble.

Goleman studied successful leaders throughout business to understand the amount of technical skills, IQ and emotional intelligence they had as ingredients to excellent performance. He found that the ratio of emotional intelligence proved to be twice as important as the others for top positions in business.

So what is emotional intelligence? It starts with self-awareness, which can be difficult for many people. It is the age-old advice to “know thyself”. Goleman says that it is “having a deep understanding of ones emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and drives. People with strong self-awareness are neither overly critical nor unrealistically hopeful. Rather, they are honest – with themselves and others.”

I recently read an article about Boise State football coach, Chris Petersen. Living in Boise and having attended BSU, I follow his success with admiration and awe. I find it astounding that Coach Pete has built upon the success of his predecessors in such a grand manor that the Broncos are consistently one of the country’s top football teams. Whether you like the Broncos or not, you must admit that what Petersen has done is incredibly impressive.  With an entire football budget that equals just the salary of other top coaches, Petersen has created a juggernaut that inspires love and hate from around the country. Pretty impressive for a team that did not even compete at Division I level 15 years ago.

In the article about Coach Petersen, we can learn a lot about his emotional intelligence:

“His football IQ has been much discussed during the Broncos’ ascension over the past few years, but Petersen’s emotional intelligence — his ability to relate to and connect with others — also seems to be off the charts.

This coach is as good at listening as talking. Maybe better.”

Coach Petersen empowers his people and takes the time to teach them. He teaches leadership and life principles, not just football. He has taken players that larger schools have rejected and turned them into an elite machine. Whether or not the football powers that be will ever find it in themselves to give BSU a shot a national championship is not up to Coach Pete, but under his leadership and cultivation of emotional intelligence there are few teams that would want to face his squad of formerly lovable underdogs.

In my next posts I will discuss looking for emotional intelligence in your people.

Predicting a team member’s success in business or sales is an inexact science at best. It can be difficult to determine who will have it what it takes and who will not. In a Harvard Business Review article by author Daniel Goleman, he says, “…identifying individuals with the “right stuff” to be leaders is more art than science. After all, the personal styles of superb leaders vary: some leaders are subdued and analytical; others shout their manifesto from the mountaintops. And just as important, different situations call for different types of leadership. Most mergers need a sensitive negotiator at the helm, whereas many turnarounds require a more forceful authority.”

In his article, Goleman tries to determine what traits a leader has to help identify them within your organization, but he emphasizes that, “Effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: they all have a high degree of emotional intelligence.”

In the coming days I will explore more of what Goleman and others have to say about identifying leaders. Although it is hard to put a checklist together, I believe it is possible to start improving how to find the right people who qualify to lead others.

My current business has been profitable from day one, but our revenue goals are much greater than what we are currently experiencing.  I believe that to achieve the lofty aspirations we currently desire, we must have the right people on our team. Unfortunately that means making some difficult decisions concerning personnel. Finding the right people and releasing the wrong people is something that has been difficult for me, because I have never wanted to hurt my people. However, as I have become a better manager that insists on accountability and performance, I have realized that keeping the wrong person on my team is not helping them or me. It is far better to release them and hope they will learn for their next venture or find an environment that better suits their skills. (Releasing a team member in Direct Sales may be as simple as moving on to another, more motivated person. I do not encourage removing them from your team, but instead, refocusing attention to someone else.)

Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great, says great companies, “don’t “motivate” people—their people are self-motivated. There’s no evidence of a connection between money and change mastery. And fear doesn’t drive change—but it does perpetuate mediocrity.” Concerning change within an organization, he says, “…dramatic results do not come from dramatic process—not if you want them to last, anyway. A serious revolution, one that feels like a revolution to those going through it, is highly unlikely to bring about a sustainable leap from being good to being great.”

Collins says that leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” Collins compares a company to a bus and filling the seats with people. He says that companies should start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. And they stick with that discipline—first the people, then the direction—no matter how dire the circumstances.

You should find the right people who can be motivated by excellence and are excited to make your business better. These people don’t work just for more money, but they work first for the satisfaction of accomplishment and the ability to be creative. Although this may seem obvious, few businesses make the right personnel decisions. Many so called leaders say they want self-motivated people who will work for the betterment of the business, but in reality, many business people have too fragile of egos to have a team member have a contrasting opinion. They are really looking for obedience to their word, not creativity and independence.

When you find the right people and release the wrong people, freedom to work within creative boundaries, and giving your people the freedom to make choices can be a very powerful tool. Freedom of choice is inherent in the spirit of man. Without waxing too political or religious, the agency to choose is our inherited and inalienable right. When your business reaches the point where your leaders are free to make creative choices within a mutually desired direction, greatness erupts. I believe in this and I am becoming more and more vigilant of this within my own company. I am confident it will take us from profitability to greatness.

The world’s greatest leaders have based their leadership on the principle of freedom or agency. Although poor decisions have consequences, such as loss of trust or dismissal from a team, the best leaders do not advocate forcing anybody to follow. They invite others to join them through living what they are preaching.

It is the responsibility of your team members to choose their own path to success.  You cannot force your path to success upon anyone. You will find that by concentrating on rewarding those who produce and releasing those who don’t, your business will achieve levels never possible with the wrong people.

Your role as a leader is not and should not constantly be a shoulder to cry on. Although it is necessary to understand your team and occasionally help them work through some of life’s problems, you cannot become your team’s psychoanalyst.  Your job and main responsibility it to help people help themselves. If you cannot develop needy people into strong, self-reliant members of your team, you will never grow a large and sustainable business.

As an entrepreneur and business owner, you may sometimes feel like a church priest or bishop rather than a capitalist. You will see in a short period of time as a business owner, that anybody who has a struggling personal life will be affected in the business. It is a rare person that can be going through a personal hell and still be unaffected in business. Understand that you will be thrust into the personal lives of your team members, but how you handle those situations is vital if you really expect to help them out.

Whether you are a manager in a traditional business, or you are a network marketer that is beginning to see his or her team member grow, understand that you should be proactively encouraging your people to participate in personal growth activities and studies. You cannot be expected to constantly help an individual who is looking for a quick handout or personal counseling system. You simply cannot grow a large and productive team by constantly taking a careful inventory of all personal outside influences to their lives.

By developing a sales team or networking marketing downline, you have chosen to be a part of people’s lives.  However, you are also in business, and it is not an unkind or an unfeeling business leader who requires a team member to buck up and become a little more self-reliant before you can spend too much time in their business development activities that are devoid of momentum.

Personal independence and self-reliance is a sustaining need for your business to grow. If you rob your team members of their ability to figure out their own problems, how will they ever become leaders themselves?  How can they ever have the strength to grow if you are not around? Worst of all, how will you ever have time to spend time with the people who are willing to be more self-reliant?

Don’t be afraid to let your team members make a mistake. Don’t be afraid to let them mess up a presentation.  We live in a fast food society that demands gratification. If we think that we can solve the problems for our team and still develop leaders, we are kidding ourselves. A new team member is going to feel some disappointment, fear, anxiety and failure. Not every call will result in a presentation. Not every presentation will result in a sale. Teach your team that a miserable experience now and then may just be a part of a profitable business. Help them understand that just because they are taking lumps now, that things will get better if they continue to self-improve and get better

There is enormous personal growth that your team members will obtain when they learn to overcome their obstacles. There is great power in becoming self-reliant. Becoming self-reliant will be fundamental to developing a strong team and ultimately a fulfilled life.

Self-esteem can be a powerful tool for both good and bad.  A member of your team with a poor self-esteem is not likely to ever be a big producer for you or ever fulfill his or her own personal goals.  In order to make it in any commission-based activity, money and self-confidence are forever blended together.  For many people, the inability to earn commissions or bonuses is directly related to their inability to believe in themselves. I don’t believe members of your team will be self-reliant until they learn to look at the mirror without wincing or constantly second-guessing their decisions. Doubt can truly cause a downward spiral and needs to be overcome.

Any true business leader understands that lasting profitability and growth comes from empowering people to become self-reliant. Having a bunch of robots that won’t function without exact instructions becomes exhausting.

To become self-reliant and to truly make money as an entrepreneur requires a person to understand something very basic: We are the masters of our own fate. We choose our path and we choose our destination. Our decisions determine our destiny. If you have a member of your team who never takes responsibility for his or her own success, you will likely need to move past that person and find somebody who will.

Each of us has an internal compass and the tools we need to succeed. Rarely is there a person born with perfect people skills or sales ability.  However, each of us was born with gifts and tools that will propel us to success. The truly successful people are the ones who accept the responsibility that they are the ones who must hone and sharpen their own skills.

When we accept the fact that we are our own agent, and that our success relies upon our own decisions, only then we will have the right stuff to overcome our inabilities. Before you can mentor a person successfully, that person must first understand that he or she must internalize and implement what is being taught, and that you cannot do it for them. Self-reliance can only start to grow when a person truly understands he or she is the captain of their ship, not you.

Success and self-reliance are fundamentally connected. To think otherwise invites short term wins at best. The first step to building a smarter team is to find people who will own their space and take responsibilities for their own personal development and not constantly shift blame to others.

In the Ultimate Sales Machine, Holmes gives us 6 steps to set you up for great follow-up after getting a client or enlisting a new member to your team. The 6 steps below are inspired by Holmes.

1 – Create rapport.  What professional goals did you note during the first meeting? How can you help prospects achieve those goals? What personal tidbit, common interest, or funny story can you refer to later to remind them of your bond?

2 – Qualify and establish need. Do you understand prospects’ needs and objectives? What are the dreams and aspirations of your prospect? What are their most pressing problems and how can you solve them?

3 – Build Value. What do they consider valuable? What benefits or addons would appeal to them and build the value around your product or service?

4 – Create desire. What are their hot buttons that can increase their desire? What is the pain point that you can use to remind them of why they bought and why they will want to keep buying from you? Remember that people naturally gravitate away from problems toward solutions. Is their current career matching up to their dreams and goals?

5 – Overcome objections. What are their objections and how can you put them to rest? Do they really want to join your team or buy your product but a small obstacle is keeping them from doing so?

6 – Close. What closed them or caused them to join your team? Do you remind them with regular contact or product updates?

The great book Linchpin talks about how the robber baron millionaires from the early 20^th century used uneducated people in their sweatshops to make themselves rich. Andrew Carnegie even decided that education caused violent strikes and hurt his business.  The robber barons decided about 100 years ago that if they wanted to be really really rich, they needed compliant uneducated factory workers.  Workers who will be productive and willing to work for less than the value that their productivity creates.  This system worked for a long time, but today, the factory system is breaking down, just ask General Motors.

Linchpin says that schools should teach two things:

1. Solve Interesting problems
2. Lead

Memorizing is what is taught in school today, not problem solving or leadership. The whole education system is based upon passing an exam, not creating leadership skills or decision-making abilities.

Leaders in direct sales organizations have been teaching their “factory” workers for years to say the same things, memorize little sayings and get together once a month for a shot of enthusiasm to keep them from quitting too early before they can sell them some more presentation tools or product.  Many entrepreneurs and members of direct sales organizations mock traditional education. Let me tell you, direct sales has a failing grade in real education too. It is time to start teaching our people to solve real problems and lead, not just memorize if we want to thrive in the new economy.

Times are changing my friends, we live in the new economy of an information age. Just teaching a budding sales person or field marketer to follow an easy presentation will not build that person into a leader. Entrepreneurs who are taught to memorize a certain pattern and copy it exactly are no better off in the long run, and neither is your business.  If you want to keep churning people, teach them to follow a set, non-thinking presentation. If you want to build a business that lasts, teach them to think.

If sales are up everywhere else for nutritional products, besides price, what else could be wrong with network marketing? Why would sales be down for network marketers if they were up everywhere else? Is there something wrong with the leadership in network marketing for sales to be lower across so many companies?

According to Nutrition Business Journal the Internet and other non-network-marketing direct sales companies had a banner year in 2009. As people lost their job and benefits, they turned to preventative health, which means increases in supplements. So, once again, why are sales for nutritional supplements down for network marketing?

There are many network marketers who claim that when the economy is slow, network marketing booms.  In 2008 MLM author, Rod Cook, wrote, “When recession hits the economy, network marketing booms.” Cook even claims that during past recessions network marketing showed explosive growth.  Not so in today’s recession.

I am a small business entrepreneur.  I have made money in ventures inside and outside of network marketing.  I have many friends involved in network marketing and I am a major stakeholder in a network marketing company. I do not write this article to try to hurt network marketing. I write it to show that network marketing is not currently capturing the hearts and minds of consumers. If this trend continues, network marketing will be set back many years.

In my next post I will explore some of what I have seen across multiple companies that I believe to be hurting network marketing. I believe that government agencies can try to stop bad practices all they want, but in the end, the market corrects itself and that is what I see happening right now.

It is time to get a little real, network marketers. Yes, I am talking to the big distributors and company executives here.  It is time to acknowledge what the public is saying with their checkbooks. The public is buying more health and nutrition products, but not from you. Few network-marketing representatives encourage retailing and instead tell their downlines to focus on the business opportunity and personal consumption. The problem is that there is only a small percentage of people that make sustainable money with their downlines. When people don’t make money, they look at how much they are paying for their $30 bottles of juice and switch back to Wal-Mart multivitamins and $4 orange juice.

The CEO of Dominos pizza recently said, “We are going to learn and we are going to get better.” Dominos even has the guts to post customers’ pictures of bad pizza and apologize to those customers. It is time for network marketing to step up and admit that, although we have a great form of distribution, we also have some issues that need to be addressed.

We can get better, but we better start looking at some facts. In order to pay commissions of 40-50% on a product, network-marketing companies must mark up their cost 6-10 times. As a result, the product value can suffer at the expense of the opportunity.  We can preach product value all day long, but if it is too expensive, the public will stop buying.  Network marketing works because of the opportunity. I am not encouraging that to stop. On the contrary, I am saying that the days of over priced supplements for the sake of the opportunity are fading quickly.

Before you start thinking I don’t know what I am talking about look at these numbers. Packaged Facts shows that supplements continue to grow steadily in sales with the market steadily progressing from 5.5% annual growth in 2007 to 6.5% in 2008 to 7.5% in 2009, bringing U.S. retail sales to $9.4 billion in 2009. However, as supplements continue to increase in sales, network marketing companies’ site traffic continues to decline during the economic hard times.

Company   –  Monthly Unique Visitors  - Yearly Change

Tahitian Noni (tni.com) 15,277               – 36.13%

Monavie (monavie.com) 63,847              - 59.39%

Xango (xango.com) 29,259                       – 40.46%

Amway (amway.com) 453,490                  +165.68%

Melaleuca (melaleuca.com) 390,923       – 30.80%

Usana (usana.com) 74,994                         – 12.93%

Getting people to buy product with the pitch that they will eventually make a ton of money is not statistically sustainable. However, selling a great product that people want regardless of opportunity will always improve the bottom line.

For you new business owners and also you job-laden entrepreneurs seeking to strike out on your own and throw so-called security to the wind in hopes of achieving the seductive dream of riches and independence, I speak to you. I embrace you, my fellow entrepreneurs, and applaud that fire in your belly that keeps you up at night seeking something more, but I also have a couple of suggestions and warnings.

Wallace Wattleswrote: “[S]ociety is so organized that man must have money in order to become the possessor of things…” Whether you are a fan of Wattles or not, he is right, the days of trading a pound of butter for a bag of wheat are a little past us now. Randy Gage wrote recently that money is a measuring stick. “If you do something at an extraordinary, exemplary and world class level in the marketplace, the market will make you rich. Because that is the way prosperity works.”

The problem is not money, but how people use it and view it. Money is a symbol and a powerful one at that. Money is not just paper to most people. According to Richard Trachtman, Ph.D., the problem for most people is that money represents such a wide area of problems including anxiety, depression, paranoia, impotence, impulse spending, gambling, social isolation, suicide, and murder. Most people have been taught that it is a taboo to talk about money. There are even books such as Etiquette written in 1922 and its new 17th edition, Emily Post’s Etiquette, that tell us it is rude in most cases to talk to people about personal finances. In 1908 Freud even connected money with feces and connected it to anal eroticism… WHAT in the world? No wonder people are so afraid of money.

No question that money surrounds us. Money can be influential, tempting and seductive. It is a main motivation in our world today. It is a primary reason for divorce and the love of money is for many one of the strongest moving forces in life.

The philosopher, Jacob Needlemansays that money must become a tool for any modern man or woman seriously wishing to find meaning in their lives. “We must use money in order to study ourselves as we are and as we can become.” Money is just a tool and it is about time we studied how we feel about ourselves.

Randy Gage is right, money is a measuring stick (a tool) and most people subconsciously know that. That is why it scares the heck out of them. People feel that money proves they are worth little and accomplish almost nothing. Why do you think people run from the topic of money and are secretive, embarrassed and conflicted about the subject of money?

If money scares you to death, join the club. It is so hard to talk about, the majority of newly weds have yet to even discuss it in any depth before the big day. However, to be successful in business and especially in network marketing, it is time to comfort your fear and understand what money can become to you, instead of how you think it defines you today.

What do you think?

In network marketing we build romantic stories about the successful leaders. We imagine that they hit home runs every at bat, throw 90 yard touch down passes and sink hook shots from 50 feet out on a consistent basis. It reminds of the Mel Gibson Classic Braveheart, where a young soldier doubted Wallace’s identity because he looked too ordinary:

William Wallace: Sons of Scotland! I am William Wallace.

Young Soldier: William Wallace is seven feet tall!

William Wallace: Yes, I’ve heard. Kills men by the hundreds. And if HE were here, he’d consume the English with fireballs from his eyes, and bolts of lightning from his arse.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It borders the absurd how we describe the accomplishments of ordinary people (Network marketing icons are really just normal dudes like the rest of us). This improper characterization is bad for new people and discourages rather than keeping them going. Who in the world really ever built their business without getting the crud beat of them?  New people get discouraged if they think they have to live up to impossible feats of marketing. In reality network marketing legends become what they are because they do the little things well. In an Eric Worre video post, he accurately tells us the secret to retention in network marketing is really just small victories. He is right.

Jenkins Lloyd Jones summed life up pretty well when he said, “[The fact is] most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise… Life is like an old?time rail journey delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.”

The people who think they will build their businesses with 4,000 people at every meeting and sponsoring only superstars do not understand how real success is achieved in MLM. Only marketers who consistently and diligently achieve small successes will create extraordinary profits in network marketing or make a lasting difference in the lives of their downline.

If you want a group of successful people in your downline, teach them that you will not fill coliseums without filling out a ton of names lists with newbies, teaching them to get passionate about a great product and sharing it with others. Great accomplishments are rarely achieved by overcoming the impossible with a miraculous effort in a short period of time. Great success in network marketing comes from creating habits over time that allow you to build persistently and which allow you to consistently improve your performance.

Great marketing leaders such as Eric Worre, Dexter Yager and Doug Wead are often credited with making a giant impact on groups. These icons within network marketing became who they are because of their ability to do the small things every day. I would even go so far as to say that the icons in network marketing are who they are because of the thousands of people like you and me who are doing the small things each day in their downline. The ultimate downline does not consist of just an incredible leader, but a group of people dedicated to the same goal. May I be so bold as to say that our main goal should be to deliver small victories every day to our new people.

It is time to dispel the myth of the network marketing Hail Mary which is the false belief that we can skip the growth pains and create the foundation for our business instantly and painlessly.  Hail Mary’s almost never work in American football and it does not work in MLM either. True success comes from the small and simple things done continuously. When we do the basics of network marketing consistently it can lead to exhilarating moments when we fill an arena with people.

Great leaders in network marketing are just simple people. I have met so many of them and what makes them geniuses is the fact that they know they are not geniuses. Our industry will become respected and our incomes sustained when we realize that we too can create extraordinary results by consistently doing the ordinary.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

– Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Rule 2 – Four hours a week won’t create much profitability. Read my last post in this series. Monavie distributors that put in 4 hours a week made almost nothing. Monavie distributors who put in 9 hours a week were making pretty good money. You know that you don’t have a superstar if he or she is not willing to put in the time.

Rule 3 – Test your people who say they are committed. Many marketers cringe at this rule. “I want everyone to be comfortable,” they think. “I don’t want to blow anyone out.” Well fine, have an underachieving group that never gets big if you don’t have the guts to ask more from your people. You have to know what your people are really doing each day in their business. Are they really showing the business as much as they say? If you know that your pseudo star is not really showing the plan as much as he claims, say this, “I don’t think you are nearly as committed as you say you are. I want everybody in my group to succeed, but I spend my travel money and the bulk of my time with those who are really committed. I don’t know if that is you or not. Are we going to do this or not?”

Holmes says that most HR departments encourage a loving and nurturing environment for businesses, but superstars must be challenged. I believe that is the same for your downline for the most part. You should gently encourage the 97% who are not ready to really commit to your business. However, if somebody claims that they are a 3% club member, you better test them before you spend 3 months dedicated to building their business traveling across the world for them when they are lollygagging. If you challenge a possible superstar; no matter age, sex or experience, they will rise to the occasion and disagree with you if you tell them they are not a 3% member. The 97% person who claims to be a star will not challenge you. A budding superstar will tell you she is committed and challenge you back. When the person rises up, challenge them to new levels of commitment. When they do not challenge you, love them, help them and encourage them to stay at it because they can learn how to become a superstar over time. Either way, you need to know what you have.

Rule 4 – Ask lots of questions. Interview your people on what they are doing each day, week and month. Know what is happening in their groups and if the rising leader is doing what is necessary to help them become a superstar. Do not hurt your 97% people in any way, but know you must take measures to know what your people are really doing. Smart uplines have an idea of what their downline is doing each day. Real superstars will not be afraid to be accountable. They want help and they will work hard to gain your respect.

Rule 5 – Know your people. Have your people take personality tests. A great book is Personality Plus. My upline, when I built an Amway business, loved using this book to understand us and how to better help us succeed. Certain personality traits are necessary to succeed in network marketing, they can be natural or learned. Either way, it sure helps to know your people and how to help them succeed.

Rule 6 – Superstars are not easy to find. Whether you personally sponsor a possible superstar or you find them in your downline, you will have to work to find them. Give your superstars and possible superstars your time and your attention. It breaks my heart to not be able to spend equal time with everyone who wants it, but you cannot spend a lot of time with the people who are not rising to the occasion. When you are new, you must have the discipline to sponsor everyone but search aggressively for superstars. If you are not looking diligently, you will miss some of the great ones right in front of you.

Rule 7 – I reserve the right to change my rules as I get better. If you think you have all the answers in this business, you are fooling yourself. Learning is the name of the game and it never stops. However, finding superstars is vital to your success and if you follow the rules above, you WILL find some real stars.

In his post “ORAC started the snowball rolling recklessly downhill” Gross has opined that ORAC is a result marketing research, not medical research. I wonder how much validity there is to his ideas, but I will search to see if there are differing opinions to Gross. His comments are below:

The oxygen radical absorbance capacity, ORAC, is a test tube measure of a food’s antioxidant state before ingestion. The method has been widely (and wildly) misused to infer antioxidant health benefits from consuming foods high in ORAC.

ORAC may have utility to food scientists as an index of polyphenol content in plant foods.

However, upon ingestion and following exposure to the enzyme and acid environment of the stomach, the polyphenol chemicals responsible for ORAC are altered (usually broken apart into newer, smaller compounds) and no longer have significant antioxidant value.

Further, the body sees these compounds as foreign and actively tries to get rid of them, indicating that ORAC measured in a test tube has no physiological meaning

It’s amazing how so many marketers allow themselves to think that by protecting their people from having to work hard that they can somehow find someone to step up. Protecting your people from responsibility and accountability will only give you average people. Average in network marketing is not good. For example the average Monavie Distributor’s check in 2008 was $30. In 2009 that average check dropped to $23. Ouch. Expect the highest possible commitment from your people and some of them will step up, others will wash out. Many of your marketers will quit even if you don’t challenge them, what do you have to lose?

If you study income disclosure statements you will see something pretty amazing. Take Monavie again as an example. Monavie claims that the average Distributor works 4 hours a week. Four hours a week in Monavie will gross you $1,214 a year. Not good. That check will barely cover your gas expense going to meetings. However, step up your weekly productivity to 9 hours a week and they claim you will gross $53,413 a year. Getting pretty good. The small difference of 5 extra hours a week makes an exponential earning difference in Monavie (if their numbers are accurate). What is even more amazing is that they claim with an additional 3 hours a week to a total of 12 and your average annual check will be $104,759.  Triple that number and they claim you will gross a cool $1,486,366. They do not say how many years you have to work 27 hours a week to earn this kind of cash, but my point remains: top earners are willing to do more, don’t hold your people back.

When we focus on creating networking studs we will have an elite corp of superstars that overcome obstacles by themselves without being dependent on a stretched upline. Chet Holmes claims that when we have a few right people who will step up to a challenge, they can be put in a bad situation with poor tools, no training, and bad resources and still, within a few months, they begin to outperform your best people or build your company in ways you never dreamed possible. Sponsoring or spotting the right people in your downline is not about luck. It’s about understanding the personality characteristics that fit elite network marketers and having the guts to challenge your potential superstars to see if they possess those characteristics.

If you challenge someone and they fail, continue to love them and encourage them. With encouragement and attendance at training events, hopefully they will continue to put in a couple hours a week. Maybe some day they will grow into a new level of production. However, you must continue your search NOW for superstars that will commit at least 20 hours a week to the business. Superstars are hard to find, but they do exist. Your job is to find them and train them. You can’t do that by fooling yourself into believing everyone is ready for that role now.

My next few posts are going to be very real. I have developed curriculum’s that can point people in the right direction, but they are not for lazy people or someone who finds excuses. My suggestions for extreme profitability in network marketing are only for the person that is mentally ready to take their psyche to peak levels needed to succeed in network marketing. If you are going to easily give up, you will become a part of the 97% who are never profitable in network marketing.

Network marketing involves sales. Anybody who tells you that you do not have to be good at sales to succeed at network marketing is telling half-truths. Success in network marketing can come as a result of finding a great product and meeting great people. However, if success is defined as profitable, then you must learn to sell.

A strong ego is vital to success in sales. Just because a person has a strong ego does not mean that person has to be viewed as pompous or arrogant. Everybody knows Donald Trump has a healthy ego, and some people cannot stand how he carries himself. His ego has served him well in business, but few people can act the way he does and not be punched in the face.  Some very successful people, such as George Lucas and Bill Gates, made their fortunes with strong egos that would allow them to get past rejection without appearing brash and overstated the way that Trump does. However, Lucas and Gates never would have made their fortunes if they were timid and did not sell their new ideas to whoever would listen to them. They are rich today as a result of not letting a “no” get them down.

Confidence and a strong ego are very necessary in network marketing because of frequent rejection. In his book The Ultimate Sales Machine, Holmes writes that a superstar salesperson must have a strong ego, show a great ability to influence others, is empathetic, has a psychological need to bond with others and a need to find something likable about every person. However, if the person is too empathetic he will be too understanding and never close a sale. The salesperson and the network marketer must be able to push with empathy. If you believe in your product or service, you should passionately push, but do so in a manner that does not offend in the process. This takes practice, study and time for most people.

When you are looking for future superstars, many times you miss them because they may seem annoying. They are always hanging around, asking questions and sometimes seem way to eager. Many potential superstars that have not honed their craft seem to need way too much attention and tend to never shut up. They can come on way too strong. Novice superstars in training have an audacity that can be off putting. However, audacity and bravado are essential ingredients needed to achieve greatness in anything.

My next post I will talk about how to test your downline to see if they have natural skills to be a superstar or if you have a lot of teaching to do.

Most network marketers go by instinct on who will be the next superstar in their group. Hate to tell all you superstar spotters, you are typically wrong. These wrong decisions cost you a ton of time and money. In network marketing your bad choice not only wastes your time, but you typically lose sight of the real stars while you are toiling away with someone who will never live up to superstar status. Chet Holmes, a master business trainer, believes that in traditional business an average bad hire can cost a company $60,000. In network marketing the cost is more difficult to put a dollar number to, but realistically we lose a lot of money and time trying to force the wrong person into a superstar role.

Many superstars make the mistake of thinking that everyone else wants success as much as they do. As a full-time network marketer, I was shocked that not everybody wanted to show 45 plans a month and drive their wheels off to get to meetings all across the country. Holmes describes business superstars as people who are eager to please, always looking for more to do, always wanting more responsibility, always wanting to know more than you think they need to know. I would say that your future superstars in network marketing could be described similarly. Because a budding superstar has characteristics that can be viewed by some as annoying, we lose many of our future leaders by crowning the wrong person as our future star.

In network marketing we think that all of our downline can eventually turn into superstars. My advice there, stop it. Stop thinking the impossible. I believe that we need to improve the experience of all our downline the best we can, but not everybody in your downline will ever be a superstar. Never. I agree with Holmes when he says that superstars are an incredibly rare breed. You will be much better off learning how to spot superstar characteristics and then hold your future stars to a whole different level than regular distributors. Regular distributors will quit long before they will ever do what a superstar will naturally want to do.

My following posts will teach you how to spot and train future stars and how to hold them accountable until they don’t need you everyday. When your stars burn bright without you every day is when you know you are on your way.

Most people that join your group will never do anything other than attend a few meetings and buy product.  Welcome them.  Love them. Encourage them.  However, there are also people that are hungry and want to succeed at high levels.  Those people should be pushed, held accountable and lovingly guided into success by expecting a lot from them.

These future leaders are not afraid to do whatever it takes ethically to succeed.  But many times their upline is trying to protect these future leaders from doing too much.  This is crazy, because top leaders get to where they are because of their attitude of doing more than what is expected.  Top leaders only create true stability when they truly replace themselves.  They will create generational income only when they ask the same from their leaders and future leaders that they ask of themselves.  If not, when they go away or die, so will their groups without their presence.  Longevity is created by creating leaders.  Leaders are made through accountability to themselves and their mentors.

One who is committed to a cause will not simply “go through the motions” in becoming a leader.  A committed distributor will not be satisfied with just making a visit to one of his downline so he can report to his mentor that his job is “completed” or “done.” A committed distributor would not be content to merely “give” a presentation but would want to teach with passion. The result, if your leaders have the guts to ask for it, will be making a real difference in the impressionable lives of the new distributors entrusted to his or her care.  It will create real leadership.

The training programs we make are done in a way that asks little from the 97% but much from those who say they want to be leaders.  Responsibility and accountability will show you who really deserves your time. Companies and top leaders need to create more leaders, and learn to identify and love the 97%, because you need them in your business too.  However, to ask little from your future leaders is a big mistake.  Leaders want to be accountable, leaders want to feel empowered, and to ask anything less is creating a house of cards that will crumble eventually.

Approximately 80 percent of the top network marketing companies sell health products or cosmetics. Give me $30,000 and two months and I can have you branded inventory of a health product or cosmetic item.  It is not hard to do. And guess what, it will probably be made in the same location as some of the world’s top brands.

It is time for network marketers to be more courageous. It is time to create more movements and to quit trying to sell a product with an economic opportunity. We don’t just need great products, because they are everywhere.  We need courageous people taking those great products and quit selling them based upon an economic opportunity.  That model is failing.  I repeat, THAT MODEL IS FAILING. Look at the following graph put out by the DSA. 2008 and 2007 had less sales than 2006.  And, if you account for inflation, we had less sales in 2008 than we did in 1999.  Some companies are growing, but network marketing is not in the United States.  All we are doing is stealing from each other as marketers jump from one fad company to the next. And marketers are jumping ship because corporations are failing on their product and opportunity promises. It is time to start creating product movements that stick based upon the merits of the movement, not just a commission.

I meet with a lot of marketers from many different companies now.  I am currently involved with no companies.  I am a network marketing lover affiliated with nobody on a day to day basis. One thing I can tell you company executives, your people would leave you if they had the guts to do so or if another opportunity that says the right things comes their way.

I am really shocked at how fearful so many field marketers are at “losing” something by staying with a company that treats them like a commodity. Let me tell company executives and top marketers how to create a movement and keep your people happy.

1. Quit treating your product as commodity that is sold because of an economic opportunity.
2. Make stuff worth talking about. If you are just one of many similar products, you better be really, really, really, really good at telling an authentic story.
3. Understand the new leverage in today’s network marketing.  Live your story, yes live your story. Give me happiness, not ingredient lists. Give me joy, not promises of riches I don’t really believe in. Give me a way to feel younger, with people that build me into greatness not scare me into submission. Give me life, don’t take it away from me.  Don’t tell me you care about how much money I make and then threaten me if I think the opportunity is better else where. Give me a reason to stay other than the lottery ticket chance of $10,000 a month. LIVE your story.

I love the movie Gladiator. My favorite part in the movie happened when Maxius found his small group of fellow gladiators in the Roman Colosseum about to be under attack. The attack came from a more numerous army of better armed warriors on chariots.  Maximus compelled his men by saying, “Whatever comes out of these gates, we’ve got a better chance of survival if we work together. Do you understand? If we stay together we survive.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

I can say I love network marketing.  I love what it can do for people and what it does to people. It is time to make our profession better.  It is time to have the courage to work better together in our companies. It is time for companies to empower their people, not threaten them to stay or suffer the consequences. It is time to grow our industry, our companies and our downlines. We better get better at creating a movement worth following.

There is nothing wrong with telling stories if they are true, or you can make them true under scrutiny. The best companies in the world are the ones that are constantly staying ahead of the crowd with their stories.  They are willing to admit when their story becomes tired or doesn’t resonate the way that it used to.

In 2007 I founded a juice company with my brothers. At the time there were a few different multi-juice blend companies, but today there are even more with “the best juice.” We decided to base our story on an unstory. The unstory was based upon my family’s desire to have a product made by nature and assembled by science. We did not want a story based on a mystical adventure in a rain forest and happening upon some indigenous people saving us from malaria with a magic potion. We believed people were too smart for that kind of story that was popular for a while.  Our juice was a great formula and our unstory had legs for quite a while. However, today I believe that most juice company stories have run their course, and like BMW did with its Joy Campaign, it is time to find a story that will resonate anew amidst all the new and continuing noise of “The best juice on the market.” Everybody preaching the same message that they are the best is frankly being lost on consumers who have heard it ad nauseam for the past 5 years.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you watched the video clip above, you will see that BMW is a master at story telling. Masters because they are passionate about making their story true. BMW understands that people do not buy facts, they buy emotions that stories provide. Seth Godin says, “The facts are irrelevant. In the short run, it doesn’t matter one bit whether something is actually better or faster or more efficient. What matters is what the consumer believes.” “Stories (not ideas, not features, not benefits) are what spread from person to person.” For juice companies as a whole, I recommend a new direction instead of trying to prove that you have more of this or more of that, it doesn’t resonate any more. Does the number of phytonutrients you have really capture the imagination of large or important audiences. I would say no it does not, most people really don’t know how something with a phyto in it even affects them enough to care deeply.

“A great story is true. Not true because it’s factual, but true because it’s consistent and authentic. Consumers are too good at sniffing out inconsistencies for a marketer to get away with a story that’s just slapped on.” Let me give you an example of a new juice company that did something smart.  Rain Nutrition is a small company that started selling juice in the beginning.  Too small and too late to capitalize on the juice fad, they have recently taken a very important step to becoming significant.  They added a couple products and started a basic fitness program that also included a diet that featured their products.  They focused more on the emotional needs of their consumers. To me, their new story is, “Rain is Fitness”. I was told that their recent program has been a smash hit and at a recent convention they saw a huge spike in product sales as a result. Nice work separating yourself from the juice noise.

Time for more of us professional networkers to listen to Seth Godin and less to ourselves and the glory days. Great stories make a promise. They promise fun. The promise is bold and not just very good, it is exceptional or it’s not worth listening to. Time for all of us to ask if we are fulfilling on our promise and not just saying, “Oh yeah, my product can beat up your product!”

Seth Godin says, “Be remarkable! Be consistent! Be authentic!” Ask yourself, “Is my company remarkable, consistent and authentic?” Of course you are going to say yes, but is it really? Is your company based on a good product story that is priced appropriately for its target market, or is your product just an excuse to have compensation plan? Ask yourself how many marketers stay on the product for a year after they realize they aren’t making any money?  Ask yourself how many people say yes to the product when they say no to the opportunity? Finally, ask yourself how many people out of a hundred, who say yes to the opportunity, actually have the opportunity promise fulfilled?

If you are promising a great product experience first, you are more likely to be able to deliver on your story. You cannot make a person profitable if that person does not cooperate.  You cannot force a person to show plans and enroll people into your company. If your opportunity presentation alludes to the fact that a high percentage of people are making money with your company, you are not being authentic. However, if your product story resonates, it can become true immediately in the eyes of people and they will buy your product. Aren’t we really about moving product or services any way?

Seth says, “So, go tell a story. If it doesn’t resonate, tell a different one.” If people are not asking for your product when you finish your presentation, it is time to change your story. Very few people have what it takes to make it big in network marketing, but many people have what it takes to make a $150 a month profit if the product story resonates. How much better off would the masses be with an extra $150-$300 a month. How much better off would a company be that has many multiples of people telling a PRODUCT story that resonates with the masses? How much better off would health food companies be if they were told how to tell a PRODUCT story that didn’t focus on ORAC, roving radicals, unpaired electrons and catechins? (I too was once guilty of this boring health speak that nobody understands and few really care about.) How about a story that really resonates with what people will always listen to; how to lose weight and look younger? Then, actually have a product that actually delivers on that story.

As Seth says, “Either you’re going to tell stories that spread, or you will become irrelevant.” My advice, listen to Seth.

I would say that network marketing, just like other means of marketing is chuck full of liars.  It is too bad, because it is counter productive. Godin says that lying doesn’t pay off anymore in marketing.  The problem with lying is that when you “fabricate a story that just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, you get caught. Fast.” Godin is right, it seems so simple.  If we lie, people will catch on and then we are doomed. Trust breaks down, attrition gets out of control and leaders get burned out trying to maintain their past incomes. Yet so many network marketing leaders, executives and those profiting from big commissions ignore the lies when it will ultimately burn them. Why?

Let’s list a couple of the big lies: everybody can succeed in network marketing, all you have to do is sign up 3 people and you don’t need to know how to sell to succeed in network marketing. Those lies may have worked 10 years ago, but consumers are getting smarter and the reality sinks into new marketers pretty fast that you can’t make a profit just by buying a spot in a downline.

I was speaking to a marketer last month and I asked him how much money he wanted to make.  He told me $10,000 a month (I think that is what he was taught to say).  ”Wow,” I thought, “I wonder how much money he makes in his job and how big was his best commission check in a year of building his business?” This great guy has never made close to $10,000 a month at his job and his biggest commission check was less than $250.  Some people may say, “Good for him, he has a big goal to get him through the discouragement.”  I say, bologna.  This guy needed help understanding to get to $10,000 a month, he needed to get to $500 a month first. If he has never made $500 a month in 12 months, how discouraged is he going to be when he realizes he may never make $10k? He’ll quit before he ever makes it at this pace.

I am going to explore the silly lies that we tell ourselves in network marketing for a few days and a better way to go about our stories.  Seth Godin says, “So, go tell a story. If it doesn’t resonate, tell a different one. When you find a story that works, live that story, make it true, authentic, and subject to scrutiny.  All marketers are storytellers.  Only losers are liars.”

Hallelujah Seth. People are joining us in network marketing, but statistically speaking MLM has not grown much faster than inflation in the past 5 years. Ouch. For such a great distribution methodology, perhaps its time we start telling a story that actually resonates.

Most people say they are dedicated to real training, but they are not willing to put in the time to do it right up front.  Consequently, they never have enough time to do what they want to do.  Their business owns them, they do not own a business.  If you don’t put the time in now, you will have even less time as your business begins to consume you.

A real training system must involve more live and automated weekly training followed up by mentors holding new marketers accountable to what they are learning.  If you want your people to grow in skills and confidence, they must have interaction with mentors or upline on a regular basis, preferably 5-6 times a week.  Without the interaction, your people will find other things to take up their time and energy.  To turn an employee into an entrepreneur does not happen overnight, but it does and can happen.

Training without accountability will fail most of the time.  To ignore that most marketers are not making a profit is just sticking your head in the sand.  We need each other to succeed in almost everything.  When we teach a new marketer a skill, we must reteach that concept again and again until it sticks.  In addition to repetition, the new marketer must also have contact from somebody in the upline 5-6 times a week to ensure that the new concepts are being implemented.

As soon as a new marketer leaves a training, there is immediate falloff of skills or ideas taught.  Skills improve in the short term, but will drop shortly thereafter. By teaching core principles on a consistent basis and repeated, skills improve now and become habits through repetition and accountability.  When your marketers are saying the same thing on level 35 as they are on level 4, your message to future prospects is the same no matter where you go on the globe. You become less burdened because you were disciplined to insist on proper training through all levels of your organization.

Vital network marketing training concepts:

• Teach new marketers in small chunks each day through:
  • A curriculum based Written Guide
  • Course of 500 word short emails sent 5 days a week to new marketers with a daily action to assigned.
  • Upline and Mentor accountability 5-6 days a week
• Video Curriculum – 3 minute teaching videos sent according to a curriculum once a week.
• Conference Call Curriculum – based upon the written guide.
• Accountability
  • Automated tools for top mentors/leader distributors.
  • 60-90 second calls 5 days a week to a building upline
• Mentor RSS feeds to show proper actions and “living the life” examples.

New marketers can succeed.  We just need to understand marketers better to really help them.  When your people have sharpened their skills, your downline and company will build better, faster and will be surprised you how much extra time you have.  Chet Holmes says, “Train or feel the pain.”  I agree, whether you are new or already have a big group, you better start real training now before your people leave you for someone who does.

1. They don’t know what to do.
2. They don’t know how to do it.
3. They don’t know why they should do it.
4. They feel there are obstacles beyond their control.

When people join network marketing to make money, they need significant training to make large checks.  To think otherwise is ignoring the obvious.  There are many people who have short term success who are fooled into thinking they have all the answers before their group begins to fall a part.

Profitability in network marketing is achieved by doing simple things 5-6 days a week.  When I say simple, I mean it.  However, simplicity is usually what trips most people up.  Leaders should track these simple activities of their proteges.  With thousands of people in a downline this may seem daunting.  All the more reason to train your people quickly so they are taking much of the load off of you.  If you fail to put the time into proper training of basic business building, you will be overwhelmed and stretched too thin to ever have a big group that sustains.

Here are 4 basic things that a new marketer should be doing 5 or 6 days every week.  They are very simple but “for precept must be upon precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little” is how great things come to pass:

1. A minimum of 15 minutes everyday of reading from books, goal planning and daily activities planning.  One hour would be better, but most people struggle with 15 minutes in the beginning.
2. Upline accountability call.  Every day a call should be made to hold themselves accountable for these 4 daily items.  The call should not be more than 90 seconds most days.
3. Business development.  This may include showing the plan, making a prospect call, a follow up call or even just having lunch with a friend to reintroduce yourself. People need to learn to talk to each other again, businesses will grow when we make an effort to be with people, not just talk business.
4. Downline development. Once a day someone in your downline should be called, encouraged, trained and promoted.  If your group is new, don’t overwhelm your new people by calling the same person over and over again.  Use some common sense.

When proteges start to be active each day as an entrepreneur, they will start to program themselves to do what is needed to be profitable.  Be patient with new people as they have years of employee programming to overcome.

Stay with me as I discuss automation tools to simplify this process in upcoming posts.

Network marketing fails when untrained marketers use up their credibility collateral with friends and family and think they have nobody left to talk to. New marketers are often not skilled enough to sell enough product or to enroll sufficient distributors into their business to make money. As network marketing leaders we must get better at mentoring our people to gain the skills needed to become profitable.

Last year I attended a Zrii function where Anthony Robbins addressed the audience.  He told the crowd that if you can influence yourself first, then you have power. He said that if can you get yourself to do what is necessary, you will have power to succeed.  The problem that most new marketers have is that for most of their lives they have had employee patterns stamped into their psyche. A person that has been told when to be at work and when to go home will not likely start off well without someone there to guide him or her every step of the way.

In my last post, I wrote that to be happy we must develop our psychological muscles that determine good or bad patterns. We determine our happiness and we can change our mood and demeanor.  We get into patterns in our life. These patterns can make you succeed, fail or even create despair.  I believe a problem that we have in network marketing is that those who have been profitable in network marketing do not spend enough time with the new person to help them establish proper patterns because of being stretched too thin.  However, we must make time or systems that create time for the new people.  You simply cannot change years of programming with one motivational weekend.  It can take many repeated trainings to get our new people to where they need to be mentally in order to make network marketing a career.

Robbins also told the crowd that we must act during the time of decisiveness. I agree with him and the time when most people make the decision to build is right when they sign up with a company.  However, most new marketers wait too long after enrolling to act due to fear of the unknown.  We must get better at establishing success patterns with our new people from day one with regular training.  Huge group meetings are great, but daily patterns are not influenced by occasional motivation.

We need to teach our people to make more moments of decisiveness.  Big marketers are paid big commissions because the make many right decisions.  If you are going to lead, you must make decisions, even if some of them are wrong.  Most new marketers are too afraid to make decisions day in and day out.  We can help them learn to be a leader, and we must commit to regular training to grow now and long term.

Join me on my next post when I talk about what we should have our people doing each day to establish proper patterns and after that I will discuss how to implement regular training and still have a life.

To add to Churchill’s famous quote, when you are going through hell, just walk faster, you’ll come out.  Understand though that while you are going through your difficulties, you will find out who your real friends are and who your facebook friends are.  While we felt abandoned by many of the people we thought we had helped, we also realized how much our family loved and supported us.  In times of difficulty, you can worry about those who left you, or embrace those who stick with you.  We were lucky to have a great family.

Right around the time we lost our jobs, my plane ticket was cancelled for our distributor promotion trip to Hawaii.  With no job or prospects of money, I sat at home feeling hurt and betrayed while many of the distributors and employees we brought into the company were on a fancy company trip.  I had a decision to make.  Was I going to start studying for the bar to be an attorney or was I going to figure out a way to stay in network marketing? Either way, bankruptcy was staring me in the face.  To stay in network marketing was to stay in an industry that had embarrassed me and had brought a ton of negative emotions.  It also meant staying within an industry that is full of some of the most incredible people on the planet.

I decided to stay involved in network marketing in a way that would not distract from our company. My future aside, I wanted our distributors to remain unaffected.  I stayed in networking because I believe you must have the GUTS to be in an environment that makes you feel alive.  When you feel alive you don’t have to fill your life with food, alcohol or sports hero worship to make you happy.  Network marketing, with all its bugs and greed-based decisions, is also full of integrity, stories of greatness and most importantly it makes me feel alive.  Where else can I work with so many people and help them achieve something more than they thought possible financially, emotionally and spiritually?  There are not many ways outside of network marketing.

As the dust has settled, I have been honored by many of my friends and distributors that have come looking for my help again.  I really love being involved in their lives.  My new mentor business is booming and it feels great to be helping people.

To be happy we must develop our psychological muscles that determine good or bad patterns. We determine our happiness and we can change our mood and demeanor.  We get into patterns in our life. These patterns can make you succeed, fail or even create despair. To regain my confidence I had to recognize some patterns and change them in my life quickly to those that would enable me to help people again.

I have known how to build downlines for a long time, however, my experience has helped me understand how to overcome adversity even better. I am not the only one who had their heart broken by network marketing.  It didn’t do me a bit of good to feel beaten.  I determine what I want and I determine my happiness.  I strongly believe that when you know what people need and show them how to get it, you will make a difference in your own life and the lives of many others.

So, when do you give up…never. If you are going through hell, duck your head and run.  You’ll come out a bit toasty, but you’ll be better for it.

Join me on my next post as I explain how to improve your psychological muscles to get yourself to take action.

Not all new networkers will take accountability seriously.  Some networkers will think they have all the answers right when they start, but we know what happens that that person after a couple months, they end up coming back for help or quitting. Some networkers simply do not have the stomach to do what it takes on a consistent basis.  However, the most hungry future leaders will do what it takes to succeed and they will attack any obstacle in front of them to achieve success.  These networker proteges will only hold themselves accountable to a person that is where they want to be and who is truly doing what he or she is preaching.

I discussed the pain points that top leaders from different companies have told me are obstacles to their success.  For review those pain points are:

• Lack of accountability from downline.
• Stretched too thin to spend quality ?time with real leaders.
• How to effectively identify ?future leaders.
• System adulteration in depth.

To achieve great results in your downline, you must be willing to take time now to replace yourself.  To relieve your pain as a leader, you are going to have to dedicate yourself to consistent training every day.  The tribal method of training does not work.  Tribal method is rampant within network marketing and consists of information being passed down the levels or generations without a formal daily, weekly and monthly curriculum.  It is done similarly to ancient Beowulf and the story keeps changing with each generation in depth.  I have felt the pain points above and having spent the last year visiting with network marketers across the globe, I can tell you they do too.

As a result of hearing the same pains over and over, we decided to build a system that helps, we call it Mentor DNA.  At its heart, Mentor DNA is focused on giving the right people, the right time with leaders who care about their success.  The most impressive result will be  that by measuring the daily activities of marketers, the leader mentor has direct insights and empirical data showing them if their proteges are really doing what it takes to succeed.  It can all be measured on a dashboard that shows their daily activities.  Knowing what a marketer’s commissions are can be helpful, but it is incomplete data and does not tell you what you need to know to help them succeed. Mentors and leaders need to know details of what a marketer is doing to understand why commissions are going up or down.  When you add accountability to an automated and integrated curriculum, what you get is a pure system that does not adulterate, measurable results and the benefits of live mentors working with proteges proving they deserve the time.

I love helping truly hungry people succeed.  I even loved driving hours to help a marketer grow the business.  I simply wanted to help others like me who believe in other people and want them to succeed.  Sadly we often miss the true future leaders by helping the wrong person.  That can be fixed and Mentor DNA can help.

Most top network marketers and company executives rarely work “on” their business, instead they are always working “in” their business.  They are so busy putting out fires, that they can’t put up a firewall.  The problem is that to truly keep growing, you must be able to be more strategic and differentiate yourself from others consistently.  You need to carve out the time to work “on” yourself, and “on” your business.

According to Audiotech.com, very few traditional companies do what’s needed to be successful, as 600,000 of them go out of business every year. Over 75% of the products launched every year fail. 38 corporations fell off the Fortune 500 in 2009 alone and only 71 of them from 1995 are still on it.

Just like there are traditional companies that do succeed, there are also networkers that are thriving also.  So why do some networkers thrive while the majority fail to make money?  How do they differentiate themselves?  I believe that Audiotech’s analysis of Fortune 500 companies applies to network marketing leaders.  ”They are run by entrepreneurs and executives that consistently consume the right information and act on it.”

• The average CEO reads about 60 books a year, 60x what the average person reads
• Bill Gates read 30 books on one recent vacation
• Warren Buffett credits his success to spending the majority of his time reading business books, periodicals, and company annual reports

It is clear, titans of business read much and often.  Top networkers must also do the same.  The problem is that most new network marketers are out of the habit and frankly do not have the drive that the world’s top performers do to hold themselves accountable to learning and reading. Leaders in networking spend many hours teaching people to do the following things over and over:

• Teaching of a distributor’s why
• Name List building
• How to sponsoring someone new
• Basic performance metrics
• Basic understanding of product or service
• Basic understanding of compensation plan

The problem that newbies and advanced leaders face is significant loss of information after it is presented.  Worse, just because it is taught, there is no guarantee that a newbie will act on what is taught.  How often does a newbie need to be reminded to make a names list before it is done?  Usually more than twice and many new marketers never make a list.

Network marketing training usually comes in a huge blitz.  Many times it is done on a big weekend with thousands of other networkers.  Everybody gets all jazzed up, their is a great feeling of value after huge doses of information is dumped on already loaded down minds.  Within days, information is forgotten and very little sticks.  This is where mentors come in.

Information dump training is better than nothing.  However, if you want lasting results you must have continuous follow-up and accountability.  Truly eager proteges will listen to a mentor and do what is recommended.  The proteges who want to succeed will allow a mentor to congratulate them as well as correct poor performance, even if the correction comes much more frequently than the accolades.

Top leaders can only effectively mentor 10-12 proteges at a time if it is done manually.  Having built large groups I know that I am guilty of being spread way too thin and spending less and less time with the ones I thought were the future leaders.  As a result, my company has created automation tools that will help a mentor automate the learning in smaller chunks.  We have created an accountability system that tracks daily activities.  As a builder I was always curious before my 4 hour drive if my “future leader” was really doing the small things each day that lead to large results.  I typically did not know until I drove all day if I was going to find an empty prospect meeting.  In addition to automating the bullet points above that help a protege start correctly, we also have created a way to track daily activities such as:

• Business building – contacting, inviting, etc
• Downline training
• Time spent planning and reading
• Upline or mentor contact

To be a leader and profitable in network marketing, new marketers must learn more.  Leaders must automate many of their activities so that they can spend quality time with the networkers actually doing the daily activities needed to grow.  When constant training and accountability is loaded into an automated system that frees a mentor to spend belly-to-belly time with those actually doing the right things great things will happen.

When frequent and even daily training is actually implemented correctly, the benefits to an automated daily training system will result in:

• More time for leaders
• More time to spend with achievers (future leaders)
• More time to live life
• More time to keep sponsoring
• More time to have more time

You want to earn more money?  Well, help your people learn more.  You will need to learn to hold them accountable.  You will need to have bullish desire to stick with accountability.  The benefits are too big to ignore.  You may be able to take a vacation without worrying your business is going to burn to the ground.

Accountability is the secret to success.  Not-so-sexy secret you may think, but I am here to tell you it is true.  People respect what you inspect.  People join network marketing wanting to succeed but have never been properly educated on what it takes to succeed.  Consequently, most people end up failing, some stats even go so far as to say that 97% of those who are a part of network marketing fail to ever make a profit.  This does not have to be the case.  There is a way to improve performance but it takes discipline and bullish desire to help your people be better educated.

I spent 6 years as a full time Amway distributor, significant time as a company founding executive and CEO, and 2 years helping network marketing companies succeed in everything from training to brand consulting.  Most recently I have been visiting companies learning about what is out there, going to their meetings, listening to their sales pitch, reading their material, researching their building tools and  generally speaking, just listening. No matter what company I visit, no matter the product or service, the majority of people enroll in a company with the hope of making money.  I wish that more people would join due to the sheer excellence of the product, but unfortunately that is not typically the case which means we must truly be dedicated to educating our people on what they must do to achieve profitability or even have a better product experience.

I have been able to speak to some of network marketing’s top distributors.  I asked many of them what were their top pain points to building a successful business.  Outside of product problems and silly corporate gaffes, the top answers are:

1. Lack of accountability from downline.
2. Stretched too thin to spend quality time with real leaders.
3. How to effectively identify future leaders.
4. System adulteration in depth.

I can’t tell you how many times I drove four hours to have nobody show up to an opportunity meeting.  I wasn’t too surprised to hear top distributors from other companies experience that all the time.  So how can accountability help solve the problems above?  How can proper accountability solve the age old problem of spending a month with a person who says the right things and does none of them?  And, how in the world do you get people on level 42 to teach the same thing that you want taught on level 2?

So many questions, but so little time.  I will address each of the pain points above, but because I know people don’t like to read a lot and I am now 560 words into this article, I’ll start my answers tomorrow and teach you how implement accountability into your downline. Stay tuned, because it works.

I was lucky, I had a great upline.  I eventually built a big group and I have enjoyed many great years as a network marketer.  How many casualties are out there as a result of lack of mentors in network marketing.  What would have happened to me if I did not have a great upline?  I can only wonder, but I do know how important having a mentor is to each of us.

The most common reasons people fail in network marketing have nothing to do with the product or compensation plan.  F.F. Fournies says that most people fail to succeed in any given opportunity because:

1. They don’t know what to do.
2. They don’t know how to do it.
3. They don’t know why they should do it.
4. They feel there are obstacles beyond their control.

Individuals that have mentors are 500% more likely to succeed than going about it by themselves.  The good news for mentors is that mentors are 600% more likely to succeed if they choose to mentor others.  These are amazing numbers and speak to the fact that we truly need each other to succeed.

Network Marketing can be a fruitful career, but like anything of value, it is not something that happens automatically.  Success in any career takes time and preparation.  In my next post, I will begin to talk about what the interaction between mentors and proteges should look like.

Dedicated to your success,

Jeffery Boyle
Network Marketing Guru

People are truly seeking for good experiences in life.  I would even be so bold as to say that they are looking for great experiences.  People want to feel alive and money is often too difficult of a concept for most people to truly believe they can achieve “lots of it”.  The belief of big money is hard because most of your prospects have never had more than a 9-5 job.  However, if you can truly help people achieve a good experience at your meetings and with your product, you will attract the masses.  When you attract the masses and not just MLM junkies, you will have a business that is built to last generations, not just a couple years.

If you want to a business that is built to last, we as corporate managers and top distributors must strive to improve the lives of our employees, our distributors and our families.  Network marketers are great because they can learn to think bigger than just 9-5 if they stick with it.  When we begin to think big, we want accomplish more in our lives.  When network marketing is done properly, we can have meaningful lives by truly concentrating on a joyous experience for the people around us.

Robert Brunner and Stewart Emery said, “Humans strive to improve their situation with the ultimate goal of ongoing happiness and joy in their lives.  Everything we do, difficult or easy, fun or painful, has something to do with having a better experience of being alive.  We want this for us, our loved ones, and on some level for society at large.  And along the road traveled, we want to make the actual traveling the best it can be.”

So, how do we create better experiences for our groups and ourselves?  First, start with a goal of creating a superior experience in our products.  Unfortunately, many companies have a product that would never sell in a traditional retail location without an “opportunity” behind it.  If you are selling a product for a company that has very small percentages of retail sells, you should probably be concerned.  If your product has no emotional impact beyond money, your product will not sell itself.  If you must rationalize, compare and measure your product to others, you may not have a product with a true emotional impact for the masses.  If people need to look up scientific journals to understand your offering, you are not likely to create true emotional impact.

To attract the masses, you must understand one thing very quickly; your prospects and downline are human beings.  They are far more emotionally driven than you give them credit for.  People can feel when you are full of it and when your product is money driven and not experience driven.  Make no mistake, there are currently some products that are not very good that are making their companies millions of dollars, but those products will not sustain the decades a good product experience or company experience would need to create generational money.   A money driven product will eventually run its course and be replaced by the next money driven product and your downline will go with it.

For your downline to pass the test of time, you must embrace the emotional side of people.  You must understand most people continue to attend meetings because they feel accepted and are having a good experience. They quit buying the product when they stop feeling accepted or that the promise of money is gone.  When we address the question of what people want from life, you will gear your meetings and events toward insuring that people have compelling information that makes their life better regardless if they make money or not.  When we address our product offering, we must accept the fact that most people do not make money in network marketing and they will take their business elsewhere if it is based more on making money than enriching their lives.  Your prospects want products and events that are insightful, gainful even if they aren’t making money and most importantly, FUN.

When network marketing companies and top distributors truly understand what their people desire, they will last the test of time.  Understanding the humans in your group is not easy and it is not something the accounting side of your mind will ever understand.  Just remember first, you are human too.  What makes you happy?  When you are alone, focus on your own happiness and how to help others get more happiness in their lives.  When you are with your group, focus on their happiness.  Really focus on their happiness and not just making money.  When you truly find what makes your group happy, you will matter in network marketing, and frankly of more importance, life.

Most network marketers and management teams have no idea how to be authentic. I continue to be amazed at how we in network are marketing make claims and statements that assume people will simply buy into our ridiculous one-liners. People are smart. To believe anything other than the idea that people are smarter and more perceptive than the way we have been treating them is a recipe for disaster going forward. If you want dumb distributors, treat people like they are dumb.

Let me give you a couple phrases that are very tired and overused in our industry:
• Ground floor opportunity
• Once in a lifetime
• Family values and integrity

In my years as a network marketer I have had about four chances at “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” I have found that everyone, including some of the biggest thugs on the planet claim to operate with family values and integrity. The most fun claim of all is presented to us once a week, the ground floor opportunity. Unfortunately ground floor usually just means a dirt floor. New companies can be a great opportunity but there is a ton of work for the management team and field leaders to make it legitimate.

I love network marketing, I intend on being a part of it in one form or another for the rest of my life, but people, let’s work on some real authenticity. Authenticity in network marketing requires that corporate and distributor behavior is consistent with our claims. It requires that we really care about people and have a true commitment to improving our own bottom line by really, I mean really, bringing people with you. Network marketing is not just business as usual. No matter what your sell, your real product or service is built on the backs of your downline’s faith in you. Do not underestimate how much you can help or devastate those who buy into your message.

Network marketing is rarely philanthropic, but few businesses really are. However, there is not a problem with wanting to make money and network marketing allows you to truly help people when you do it correctly. If we fail to become authentically interested in bringing people with us, our prospects and downline will see right through our one-liners and disingenuous statements. People see through empty words and partial truths more than ever before. Our downline has many options today and can sense if we are not being authentic.

Here’s a way to start being authentic. Ground floor is fine if you are willing to work through the difficulties in the beginning. Tell people the advantages and disadvantages of not having a system built yet. Demand management teams be accountable. Demand true product value at real prices. If your company says one thing and does another, hold their feet the fire. Help people recognize that the opportunity is in how we make it, not in what others give us. Show people you have integrity and values by committing to it over the time, don’t just say it.

Network marketing is the real deal and is coming of age. Let’s quit screwing it up.

A few years ago I was consulting with a company founder and told him that developing his people with true leadership concepts was the most important “tool” investment he could ever make.  He disagreed and believed that the perfect brochure and video set would sponsor the thousands he wanted in his business.  I believe that many management teams fall into the trap that tools make the group grow.  I believe tools are important, but developing leaders is the future strength of any company whether they are already at a billion dollars of sales or just starting.

The most effective distributors I have seen in any company need few if any tools.  The only tools they use are the ones that they use to appear duplicatable.  Frankly speaking, these leader distributors could sponsor with or without tools and only use the basic tools so that newbies will also.  Leaders focus on the person or group in front of them.  They watch their prospects facial expressions and they hear the doubts expressed during their conversations.  True leaders have conversations with prospects, they don’t spew out a memorized speech.

To be a leader, distributors must own the message and must improve themselves over time until they have the characteristics they need.  A leader is made over time with self-improvement, not by having the perfect tool.  A true leader studies sales techniques and finds a mentor no matter how high they are in their organization.  A true leader understands people’s fears and adapts the presentation depending on the audience in front of her.

Don’t expand your number of tools and company messages aimlessly.  Your company must focus on quality, not quantity.  Your basic prospecting tools should be viewed as a crutch for the new person but your emphasis should be first on helping develop leaders amongst your management team and distributors so that tools become secondary to the person.

Let’s cut to the chase and boldly claim that there is not such thing as the perfect tool.  The best tool however, is a leader that understands people and owns the company message psychologically, physically and emotionally.  The leader understands the company limitations and addresses them head on in the appropriate times and places.  The leader was not always a leader and can empathize with the new person that wants to improve and become somebody special.  Your company will fail without the proper field and corporate leadership.  Your goal should be to create better leaders first and good prospecting tools second.

Answer – In a word, apathy.

Apathy is absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement. When we are apathetic, we lack interest in or concern for things that others can find moving or exciting…  Summed up, we become lame duck, couch sitting, TV junkies, Cheetos eating bottom feeders.  (Was that too strong?)

“One of the first and most important steps toward any accomplishment is to find out what is holding us back,” Sterling Sill.

There are many reasons why people  give up on their dreams of financial and personal success.  However, few people wake up one day and say, “I’m done with my dreams, I’m not going to do what it takes to succeed any more.”

Statistics tell us that few people ever reach the top positions within any organization.  It does not matter if the top position is in traditional business companies or in network marketing.  Few people truly achieve greatness in anything.  However, there are a lot of people that skate through life having never really done anything truly spectacular.  Why is that?  We already discussed that most people don’t consciously turn off their dreams over night.  So what makes people apathetic toward success?

People slip into apathy in three ways:  ignorance, indecision, and indifference.

These three I’s are what I like to call “Success Sins.”  The problem with these three sins is that they are sins of omission, not commission.  This means that you commit them by doing nothing.  It is not big things that cause you to fail, it is the small things.  The small shrub is much more likely to trip you up than the giant oak.

Ignorance

Doers are almost never colossal failures.

• Wayne Gretzky says, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.”
• Babe Ruth hit 714 career home runs, but he struck out 1,360 times.
• Abraham Lincoln was defeated in 1832 for the Illinois State Legislature, and in 1858 for the US Senate before he was elected to be President of the United States.
• Forbes says Donald Trump is worth $2.7 billion, but Trump’s business entities have used bankruptcy at least twice (that we know of) to regain financial health.

Potential success stories have been interrupted far more by failure to understand success principles and dedication to understand success principles than outside influences creating opposition.  That means that people trip themselves up far more often than someone or something getting in their way.  Ignorance is what stands between most people and their dreams.

So why don’t more people study success principles and become inspired by the success of icons such as Abraham Lincoln?  If we were to only take time each day to study other success stories we would see that are heroes are just people; flawed, scared and initially incompetent individuals who are willing to improve and seek answers through doing or studying the actions of a mentor.  The answers to success are right in front of us.  Inspirational stories surround us, but we are often just unwilling to look for the obvious answers to success.

Indecision

Decision making is crucial to success and some people just can’t make a decision.  Guess what, if you never decide to act you are in deep trouble if you want to be successful.  If you are committing the Success Sin of indecision you can strengthen your  decision making muscles.  I am not saying that you look before you leap, but doing nothing until you have a perfect knowledge of what is going to happen will just not happen.

Good intentions will not make you a success.  Good intentions acted upon will sometimes cause failure.  However, good intentions acted upon on a regular basis will propel you to new heights.  Procrastinating is simply delaying the inevitable and if you continue to postpone your future and you will lose interest in your dreams propelling you into couch potato mediocrity.

After too much procrastination and vacillation, some actually lose the power to make a decision. I know of one man whose mind is so perfectly balanced between the positive and the negative that he has great difficulty forming an opinion either one way or the other. His mind resembles a teeter-totter in perfect balance. There is as much weight pressing down on the negative end as on the positive. He has difficulty getting enough of a majority on either side to get a conviction.  It is the old story of the donkey starving to death midway between two piles of hay.  – Sterling Sill

Stop delaying your future, get out of your own way and make a darn decision.

Indifference

The biggest Success Sin is not that people disbelieve in success principles or that they can succeed, it is far worse when people just don’t care one way or the other. It is one thing to broke, but it is much worse to lack interest and enthusiasm.

When you are indifferent, you inner fire remains unlit and eventually is snubbed out permanently.

No one deliberately decides to be ignorant. Ignorance is indifference to learning. Sloth is indifference to industry. Weakness is indifference to strength.  -  Sterling Sill

Find something to care about.  Indifference will sap you of more strength than anything outside of you.

Success Sins

These three success sins probably rob more people of personal success than any thing else.

Thomas A. Edison said, “There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the real labor of thinking.” If we are not actively thinking and planning our future, TV and those around us will plan our future for us.  I personally believe that NBC and HBO should not be planning my future.  James Allen and Proverbs tell us that we become think about.  We are so close to success if we just do our best each day to avoid apathy towards the things that are most likely to bring us our dreams.  It requires diligence and passion to succeed but isn’t our future worth it?   For many people success is far less important than clinging desperately to the mind numbing comfort of ignorance, indecision and indifference; just stop being one of them.

The three I’s have always been our biggest problem. We remain stricken with ignorance and poisoned by a continuous succession of small thoughts. We become centers of indifference. This prevents our progress. The three I’s develop a sort of “idleness and inactivity in perpetuity.” Sterling Sill

So what are you going to do about it?  Break the bad habits you have formed by the Success Sins.  Go out and make a decision quickly even if it is where you are going to lunch.  Read something positive everyday, even if it is only for a couple minutes.  Find a mentor, eat something healthy, write down a goal and do some exercise.  Get excited about something now to feel some energy pumping through your veins again.  Start now and change someting, even if it is small.  Make something out of your life by escaping apathy and you will find something in you that has always been there, maybe it has just been hiding.

Very few of us will ever be on Notre Dame and get a sack, even if we are taller than Rudy and weigh more than 100 pounds.  However, we all have a million reasons to give in to failure.  Sports are a metaphor for life.  Adversity, struggle, loss, defeat and victory are a part of what we do each day.  Below are some great quotes related to sports (and life really):

Click here to view the embedded video.

“I’m going to go out a winner if I have to find a high school race to win my last race.”
Johnny Gray

“I cannot have survival as my only goal. That would be too boring. My goal is to come back in my best running form. It is good for me to have that goal; it will help me.”
Ludmila Engquist (Olympic champion hurdler facing cancer and chemotherapy)

“There are clubs you can’t belong to, neighborhoods you can’t live in, schools you can’t get into, but the roads are always open.”
Nike

“Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity.” Michael Johnson

“I always loved running…it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.”
Jesse Owens

“Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.”
Steve Prefontaine

“It hurts up to a point and then it doesn’t get any worse.”
Ann Trason

“Tough times don’t last but tough people do.”
A.C. Green

“What matters is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower

“The gun goes off and everything changes… the world changes… and nothing else really matters.”
Patti Sue Plummer

“You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can’t know what’s coming.”
Frank Shorter

“Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.”
Doug Larson

“It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.”- Muhammed Ali

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”- Wayne Gretzky

“You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims.”- Harriet Woods

“The only one who can tell you ‘you can’t ‘ is you. And you don’t have to listen.”- Nike

“Accept challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.”- Unknown

“I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”- Michael Jordan

It is very typical for us to believe that someone has it better than we do.  The grass, for most people, is always greener on the other side of the hill.  The recent death of Michael Jackson is very similar to the death of another beloved figure, Elvis.  Both men had adoring fans across the world.  Both men had more money then what could be spent in many lifetimes.  Both men were so miserable they had to use drugs to sleep and find peace.  What a terrible waste.

We only know about Jackson and Elvis because they were such public and famous personas.  There are many other rich and poor people who spend their days focused only on what could be.  Although not everyone has the luxury of loving what they do every day, all of us can have a passion in life.  We can all desire an increase and expansion, but we cannot forget to have gratitude for what we already have.

If you hate what you do for a living, find something you truly love to do in your free time.  When you love what you are doing, time will disappear.  You will find that your love helps you focus on constantly improving and you can find yourself not constantly wishing for a better life because you are making it happen.  You will also find that you disappear into your love and you become something better almost by accident.

Determination and passion are like muscles that can be developed.  Anthony Robbins calls this psychological strength.  Stephen Covey talks about replacing your paradigms or habits.  No matter what you call your new vision of you, it will take determination and persistance and you can develop your mental muscles.

What each of us must understand is that we have patterns in our life that make us succeed and fail.  These patterns can cause grief and happiness.  They also can give us new energy or sap our strength.  What we must do is recognize that these patterns are there and look for them when we are feeling a certain way.  When you recognize your patterns, you will understand how to change your life.  When you recognize what makes you tick, it will be easier to help others recognize their own patterns.  Recognize patterns in others and you will be able to show them how to accomplish their goals.

Think of something that makes you happy.  Close your eyes and concentrate on that thing or person.  Mentally draw a picture of it in your mind.  Imagine yourself spending time with that thing or engaged in a fun activity with a person that makes you happy.  If you really did this simple exercise you will notice that your complete physiology changed.  You became more relaxed.  Your problems temporarily went away.  You were happy. The opposite happens when you concentrate on negative things in your life.  Study yourself and your emotions.  What topic makes you upset and angry?  Now find a way to get that negative pattern catalyst out of your life.

When you begin to recognize the patterns and change your life you will not need outside influences to make you happy.  When you know what people need and show them how to get it, you will have tremendous positive influence in the lives of others.  If you can influence yourself first, then you have power.

Do you have the guts to realize you are the reason you are where you are?  Do you have a positive influence in your life that can tell you that you are messing up?  Do you have the courage to get off the couch and change your destiny by getting the negative catalysts out of your life?

Remember:

Decision is the force to change your destiny.

Get the GUTS to be in an environment that makes you feel alive so you don’t have to fill it with food, or alcohol, or sports on television.

You must act during the time of decisiveness.

You must make more moments of decisiveness.

Leaders are paid to make the right decisions.  They make the wrong ones, so they make another one.

If you are going to lead, you must make decisions.

**************************************

NEED MOTIVATION – You don’t need to be fearing for your life, maybe it is just a new pair of running shoes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I stole the title to this post, “When It’s Head Versus Heart, The Heart Wins.”  The original article for that title was written for Newsweek Magazine February 11, 2008.  That article was about voter tendencies and the sub title said:

“Science shows that when we are deciding which candidate to support, anxiety, enthusiasm and whom we identify with count more than reason or logic.

Your organization is looking for someone they can identify with.  They are looking to have fun and receive acceptance.  I have said many times on my site and to distributors that network marketing leaders are selling hope and dreams first, your product and service second.  Frankly, most people in your organization are not really looking to make money.  Maybe they got into your business to make money, but soon found that it takes commitment and they may not be ready to give true commitment of the hours and passion yet to make their business profitable financially.

Most companies tout the horsepower of their product and service in an attempt to keep people interested in buying their goods.  This may work for some customers, but this is no way to build a downline.  Statistics are used to promote reason and logic.  This will not keep your people in your business building long term.

Politicians have spent hundreds of millions of dollars attempting to get people to follow them.  The modern, successful politician understands his/her people and how to keep them as faithful constituents.  Like a good politician, you must understand the hearts and minds of your downline.  You must understand that you are often the guardians of their hopes and dreams.  However, unlike many politicians that conduct polls and surveys to manipulate their message, I hope you are trying to understand your people so you can help them, not use them to make only your dreams come true.

I believe that there is nothing wrong for people to be involved with network marketing because they love the product and the association with people who make them feel good about themselves.  It is powerful to give people positive associations and new outlooks on life.  You can make money from the product those people buy.  You can be a positive outlook on their life.  And, just because they are not making money and you are, they are not a failure.  You just better be a good guardian of their needs in the process.

One of the better speeches on this positive thinking came from Tony Robbins.  Tony said,”It is ineffective to think positive only.  You wouldn’t go into your garden and chant ‘No weeds, no weeds.”  This is, as he called it, stupid.

Here are some Mandates on Leadership:

1. See problems as they really are, not better and not worse. You are not a leader if you ignore the facts.  Most people will make the facts worse than they are.  There are always problems, that is the nature of the universe, your goal must be to have a better quality of problems.  People make problems worse because most people only give 85% so that they have an excuse for failure.  They secretly don’t have the passion to completely follow through because success requires commitment and they don’t want to commit.  It takes no courage to doubt things, pessimism is not seeing things as they are, it just means you are gutless.  You are sick and broke because you sit on the couch eating Cheetos and watch too much TV.  Whatever you believe in spiritually, you will live.  Fix your problems, do not wish them away and your life will get better.
2. If I have to prove it to you, you are not the right person. You are looking not to convert people, but you are looking to have people who already have some standard of leadership to see things as they really are.  There are cycles of times.  Winter follows Fall.  Some people freeze in the winter, others go skiing.  Arguing that it should not be winter is silly.  Take advantage of it and make your story positive.  History shows that many people make some of the most money during hard times.
3. Pessimism in the marketplace is power. When others buy, make sure you sell.  Don’t panic about what you have lost.  See things better than the way others see them.  Make things the way you see them, not the way others see them.  Work on your circumstances until they become in physical nature the way that you see them spiritually.  Kids do not start walking immediately.  Kids fall down, they bump their heads, they look silly trying to walk, but you don’t stop them.  What you focus on is what you get.  Your desires and motives will be what fuels your life.  Your motives will support life.

Question – What are leadership characteristics needed in network marketing to succeed?

Answer – Leadership principles are the same in network marketing as they are in almost every other human interaction.

I was searching leadership today and I found a blog with some excellent information on leadership.

Here are some action steps to enhance our Leadership Generosity:

Give people a sense of importance and meaning

Consider what small actions you can take today to make people feel that the work they do is important, and that they themselves, as people, are important to your team. Help connect the dots for them and help them see how they can and have helped others

Give encouragement and feedback, not criticism

If giving frequent criticism is your style of management, consider some of these questions: Is your motivation genuine, or is it to gain points? Are you picking the right moment? Are you stopping to reflect how you might deliver the feedback while still honoring the other person?  As a leader, giving people the gift of not just our appreciation for good work, but our genuine admiration for their talents, is generosity of spirit at its pinnacle. This is the difference between saying to someone: “Great job” versus “That was pure genius;” or “I appreciated your help” versus “I couldn’t have done it without you.” When it comes to genuine praise, like the sun at high noon, give resplendently. When you see good work, say it, and say it from the heart, just as you thought it. Free up the thought, and let it breathe – let it fly out there in the form of generous words, and watch what you get back. Giving is ultimately sharing.

Give people visibility

Giving people visibility on your team is a special gift we can give to help others shine and grow. Knowing that your leader is representing us well to senior leaders and upper management in your organization is a high-octane motivator, and engenders fierce loyalty.

Know when to forgive

Martin Luther King said that “The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.” Consider how harboring vindictive thoughts, even though so compelling at times, is nothing but violence to oneself. A characteristic of a generous person is a total lack of resentment – it’s in effect being too noble, too big for that. Who do you need to forgive? What do you need to let go?

Share your knowledge and experience

Resolve to become a philanthropist of know-how. What knowledge, expertise, or best practices can you share with others as a way to enrich them? Share with no expectation of return!

Give anonymously

Real generosity of spirit is doing something for someone without their knowledge. I have had the pleasure of listening to John Jackson every morning for the last few months as a new leader in our organization and he ends each of his calls with this call for generosity – Do something for someone today that will really help without them ever knowing you gave that help.  That is real generosity!

If you wold like to read the entire post click here.

Duff has heroically and humorously overcome her battle with sarcoidosis, as recounted in her best-selling book, Model Patient: My Life As an Incurable Wise-Ass.

Here’s what Duff told Marc:

The biggest mistake you can make is to do nothing when you can do a little. If you can do just a little something today, do it.

Duff was hitting it big when her illness hit her. She was at the Emmys with George Clooney, she’d just signed a contract with Revlon, and she had been named one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People.”

And by keeping her spirits up and expectations down, she did just a little bit that day. And a little bit more the next. And a little bit more the next.

And she re-built her life, her work, her career. She never lost her good spirits or wicked sense of humor, and has the most charming outlook on love, life and just about everything.

To laugh in the face of our enemies – even mysterious incapacitating illnesses; to thrive – not despite our problems, but because of them; to overcome, to conquer, to challenge; to take the worst that life can inflict upon us – and respond with the best that is within us.

That is the mark of my heroes.

Folks, whatever you’re facing today (and I know it is tough out there), but is it as bad as a life-altering illness?

And if it’s not (or if it is), can you do just one little something today?

Just one thing today for yourself, for your career, for your life.

The biggest mistake you can make is to do nothing when you can do a little.

*********

Thanks Marc for sending this email.  It was great.  Karen’s words to Marc are really an inspiration to us all.

You can subscribe to Marc’s emails at www.theladders.com

Network marketers have a real opportunity now with people wanting to get into business for themselves but fearing to get started in a traditional business that may suck their bank accounts dry.  There are many people disenchanted with corporate America and there is really no better time than now to get started as an entrepreneur.

Not everyone is cut out to be self employed because of the demands it takes to make a business work.  However, network marketing offers a unique ability for the person to be in business for themselves, without being by themselves like a traditional business startup.  Where a typical entrepreneur is wired to be comfortable with open-endedness and ambiguity, most people are not.  Many of these people who are not comfortable with ambiguity may do great in network marketing with a success system and a mentor.

The articles says:

Self-employed professionals also are known for being optimistic, competitive, creative and organized. They tend to have a head for business, understand what their customers want and act with integrity. And if they’re passionate about their venture, they work as many hours as it takes to get results.

If a motivated entrepreneur with the characteristics described above enters network marketing, they can have amazing results.

If you’re tired of leaving your career success in the hands of others and think striking out on your own is a better option, there are steps you can take to ensure that self-employment is a good fit before going too far down the entrepreneurial road.

See How It Feels

“Observe yourself like a bug and note the situations where you feel most creative and excited,” suggests Ms. Slim. “Hang out with entrepreneurs to see if you like the lifestyle, and go through some of the motions yourself — like approaching a customer or advertising your latest project — to see how it feels.”

It’s also important to consider what’s required, personality-wise, of the type of business you want to start. “Entrepreneurship is a continuum, and there are those who feel most comfortable and have the skill set to start new businesses over and over again, whereas others prefer to dip their toe in and then return to work for an established organization,” says Ms. Slim.

Finally, recognize that any kind of self-employment brings with it a host of new accounting responsibilities, from processing invoices to filing endless tax forms. Whether or not you can cope with it should factor into your decision to proceed.

I received a great email from Palo Alto software today and I thought I would pass on some of it.  It is very applicable to our efforts each day with prospects.

Stories are important — they remind us what’s possible

People overuse the phrase “never in my wildest dreams.” Especially when it comes to starting a business. The truth is, we entrepreneurs are all dreamers at heart.

Back in the ’80s, I gave up a lucrative consulting practice to start a software company on a shoestring budget. I believed in the usefulness of software in business planning, and nobody was doing it right. Now, did I expect that original product to grow into the world’s best-selling business plan software, and eventually to become the flagship product of a much larger Palo Alto Software? Not exactly. But I’d be lying if I said the thought never crossed my mind. We dream it, then we try to do it.

That’s why sharing our stories is so important. Starting a business — or growing an existing one — is hard work. And it’s risky. And it takes a particular mix of bravery and optimism. Hearing about others who have made the same journey successfully is like fuel. It helps us take off.

Good reasons to share your story

• Beyond the obvious, here are a couple of worthwhile reasons to consider spending your time on this:

• Inspire the next great entrepreneur! Nothing energizes potential entrepreneurs better than hearing about the experiences of others who have built their own successful companies. Share your wisdom with the crowd.

• Enjoy the free PR.

• Drive traffic to your website.

True brands live in the hearts of their followers. Smart executives know the difference between selling a product/service and selling a way of life. To illustrate, let me give you a couple examples: Apple, Harley Davidson, Disney and Abercrombie & Fitch. Harley riders even tattoo the logo on themselves. Now that is a powerful brand.

Levi Straus once was a shining example of passion and owning a niche, no longer. They lost focus and it is hard to get the trust of the consumer back. In network marketing, Amway is the Levi Straus of brand/trust equity. Amway once had niche domination in America, but somehow they lost focus on the fact that they were really selling hope, not soap. Trust is something that is hard to get and even harder to get back once you lost it.

Good examples of trust equity (Apple and Harley Davidson) understand that they are selling freedom and lifestyle. They know the hearts of their buyers. Harley Davidson riders know that there are faster bikes that are quieter, but they don’t care. Harley represents freedom from the 9 to 5, it represents a band of brothers and sisters. And, Harley Davidson corporate knows their customers. Harley employees are bikers, they live what they sell. Apple is an example of a company that had, lost it, and then regained it. Apple is now the shining example of understanding how to be important. They are more expensive, they are prettier, and they just keep getting better. Apple users resent inferior PCs and you cannot convince them that there is anything that compares to the iPod.

So who gets this in network marketing? Who truly understands what people are really looking for? Is it a high ORAC, is it cheaper long distance, is it more vitamin C, or is it a cool logo? No, no, no and no. Network marketing is coming of age, but few companies get what their customers really want (and yes, IBOs/distributors are customers, they are the ultimate customer). There are very few companies in the world that see and hear the same thing as their customers, and even fewer MLM company executives that get it. Instead, many companies try to force what they think their customer wants or spend too much time comparing themselves to another company.

IBOs don’t care about the supply chain or how exact your bank account is balanced. IBOs want to feel alive again, they want to feel needed. They want to belong to a band of brothers that will stick up for them when they are not in the room. They want to be free, even if it is only on weekends. My guess is that your company executives don’t get this and most have never really thought about it. There are many company executives that don’t even understand their own compensation plan. Most companies that are having momentum and communication problems have their problems as a result of the corporate team thinking the field cares about corporate’s problems. The field doesn’t care if the CEO or President is having personal problems or why the product is late. The field just wants things to be right now and if its not, when it will be fixed. However, corporate teams better care about what the field wants. It is very important. Corporate executives must understand the fields’ problems and do their best to fix those problems before they even start.

Instinct is important in company culture and brand importance. However, instinct dies in endless meanings because you justify away your instincts to the bean counters in the room. You want your company to matter? Well, start understanding that people care less about your product and more about themselves. What’s in it for them? Ask your corporate team if they have ever sponsored someone into the company, and if they haven’t ask them to. Don’t ask them to help you enroll someone, ask them to enroll their own friends or family for a year. Ask yourself if you feel excited each day to be a part of something special. If you don’t, fix it quick or someone smarter about human nature will take your group.

Using a powerful engine like WordPress can give you many advantages over other free sites such as blogger.com, but there are lessons you will need to learn in order to make your site what it should be.

Click on the links below to help you get started.Some connections may take longer to load the videos below.  You may have to push the pause button while the videos upload completely.

Basics of Logging In – Click Here

How to make a Page and upload Images

How to make a Post on your site

How to make a Post on your site – Part 2

How to Configure your Featured Article on Front Page

How to add images/media and make edits

A: Don’t ever give up.

Is that really the secret?  It can’t be that easy you may say.  I tell you it is.  But never giving up is very hard for most people.  Don’t be one of them.

I love this cartoon.  I always have.  I have counseled some people to look at their first six months in network marketing as a learning period.  Whatever money you make is a bonus.  Sometimes it is a big bonus.  However, you must first learn before you can earn the big bucks.

Let me tell you the main reasons people fail in network marketing:

1. They are not talking to enough prospects.
2. They are not talking to the right type of prospect.
3. They are not following a proven success system.  (The right system tells them what to say and how to say it.)

Many people come into network marketing with these skills and a network developed.  Others do not.  However, all the skills that you will need to succeed can be developed if you are passionate about acquiring them.  Just don’t give up before you get there.

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Answer:  You may be holding on to things that are preventing you from the personal growth you need to get to the next level.

I recently received a tweet that said, “The universe cannot put good into your hand until you let go of what you are holding on to.”  How true this is.

I remember a book I read in the fifth grade.  Somehow a bunch of chimpanzees escaped and were evading recapture near a young boy’s home.  In order to befriend the chimps he had to get close to them.  The boy made a trap by putting food into a box that was big enough for the chimp to put his hand into the box.  However, when the chimp had the food in hand he became trapped because his closed fist would not come out of the box with the food.  To get free, all he had to do was let go of the food.

There are so many of us that have the answers to our troubles knocking us on the head each day.  However, we are too proud or lazy to let go of the unproductive past that is holding us back.  Is it TV, computer games, pride, or even fear that is holding you back?  Are you more passionate about emotional and financial freedom or holding on to the things that have made you comfortably miserable?

To gain your freedom and the prosperity you think you deserve, you may have to let go of what is keeping you captive.

Question – We are having growth in our business, but we are having too much attrition, what can I do to help people stay in the business long enough to start making real money?

Answer – Try having some fun.

Did you know that one of your main responsibilities as a successful network marketer is to start enjoying life again?  When you start to teach people to follow their dreams and to start living them now, you will create a culture of life and actually enjoying it. If you are not having BBQs, picnics and fun activities, you should probably start now.

Before I became a “serious” business person, I sure had a lot of fun.  I worked hard so I could play hard.  Snow skiing, water skiing, body surfing, golfing, snowmobiling, softball, beach volleyball, mountain biking…you get the picture.  If you start learning to have fun again you will keep more people in your business, you will keep more people ordering the product and you will start making more money.  The great part is that this will all be more realistic when your people are actually enjoying being in your business.

People stay where they see value.  People love being around people who are enjoying themselves. Start enjoying yourself.

(By the way, my body still looks the same as I did in purple shorts above, I just have a little less hair on my head.)

Bob Proctor tells us that if we are going to improve we are going to have to have an open mind and an open mind is being prepared to throw away some of our most cherished beliefs when a better one comes along.

The vast majority of people seem to back into the future dragging all of their own experience with them and when they are confronted with a new idea they ask themselves “does it fit?”  If it doesn’t, they say “it is wrong!” The “wrong” ideas are typically what are making you miserable.

What we need to do is ask ourselves “Will this new idea improve the quality of my life or is it going to take me in another direction?”  Before you throw something away as rubbish, you better know that it is not going to improve your quality of life.  You never know the great heights it could have taken you.

People talk about degrees as making you educated.  I can tell you that I know some really broke people with degrees.  Some people believe that specific knowledge makes you smart.  I believe the test of the educated person is their ability to:

1. Can you entertain a new idea?
2. Can you entertain another person?
3. Can you really entertain yourself?

What are your thoughts?

Register today for the Science of Network Marketing.

Ascorbic Acid Causes Hardening of the Arteries (Alternate Medicine Angel)

It seems hardly likely that taking high doses of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) can cause thickening or hardening of the arteries since so many people have taken high doses for a long time. Yet researchers from the University of California reported just that on March 2, 2000. People who took 500 mgs of ascorbic acid had a 2.5 times faster progression of thickening of the carotid artery (hardening of the arteries) than people who took no supplement.

Synthetic Vitamins Also Cause Deficiencies (Alternate Medicine Angel)

All store-bought vitamin C is either synthetic or fractionated (isolated from a highly-processed food like corn oil). The real vitamin C complex contains a myriad of nutrients, including organic copper, bioflavonoids, enzymes and coenzymes, trace mineral activators, antioxidants, etc. The ascorbic acid fraction of this complex is only the preservative or anti-oxidant portion which actually serves to preserve the nutrients of this marvelous nutritional complex. By manufacturing high-dose ascorbic acid supplements, we have opted to “extract one component and give it at a very high level, not knowing what we are doing to the system.”

It is a fact that the body cannot assimilate (use) high-dose fractions of nutrients without first putting them into a form that is functional to the human body. In the case of ascorbic acid, the body will scour the system for the missing components of the vitamin C complex in order to utilize the ascorbic acid. That is why almost all of this chemical ends up in the urine — because it cannot be utilized by the body in its fractionated form.

The potential problem with ascorbic acid is that prior to being excreted from the body, it scours the system for its accompanying nutrients. In so doing, ascorbic acid and other synthetic nutrients can create deficiencies of their nutritional partners. Prime examples are high doses of zinc causing a mineral deficiency, high doses of vitamin B1 causing a B vitamin deficiency, and high doses of ascorbic acid causing a copper deficiency.

Natural VS Synthetic

In an article entitled Vitamin Wars: Natural VS Synthetic, it was said that synthetic vitamins simply cannot measure up to nature’s finest. Over 3,800 different compounds have been identified in foods as having nutritional significance. However, in a laboratory, twenty nutrients are about all that modern science can reproduce and put into a vitamin product.

Answer: It can get better once you learn how to develop leaders.

John C. Maxwell once said, “A leader is one who knows the way … goes the way … and shows the way.”

Gary Eby summed up much of Maxwell’s thoughts when he wrote that powerful leaders promote leaders, they don’t just maintain followers. Powerful leaders not only mentally assent to knowing the way they actually go the right way. And true leaders then show the way to others. They duplicate themselves. Let’s make sure you understand this. I’ll say it again differently. ‘The “mediocre” teacher tells. The “good” teacher explains. The “superior” teacher demonstrates. The “great” teacher inspires.”

I love the idea that the great leader inspires people.  You can never prepare your people for every situation that they will ever encounter.  People must be inspired to great things, because a factually perfect presentation without inspiration is worthless.  You will not get people to follow you or to do great things if they lack inspiration.

Randy Gage has done a great job of describing what happens when people lack inspiration and a culture of duplication in their group:

…many people become “MLM Grinders.” These are the people who have to constantly replace their distributors because they drop out. They have to make all the presentations themselves, handle all the meetings, and pretty much do everything. If they slow down for one minute, things start to unravel in their group. They’re always grinding, but the recognition, big bonus checks, and free cars and trips always seem just a little out of reach.

Remember the parable about the emperor with no clothes?

Grinders are in a similar situation. They sell lifestyle and talk about residual income, but the sad truth is they don’t really have either. They work night and day because they’re afraid to let up. If they were to stop grinding for even a month or two, their income would shrivel up and die.

Duplication is key, but you will have to give up some of your control and teach people to do the right thing for their groups.  So what is the right thing?  You must learn to inspire people to learn more about themselves and the true principles of duplication.

Start today by clicking here to sign up for the next Secrets of Network Marketing teleseminar.

Why are some people successful when others are a complete failure in life and in network marketing?  Is there a secret that makes some people so successful while others fail?  The simple answer is yes.  There is a secret to network marketing and if you follow what I teach in the course, you will succeed.

There are many thousands of ordinary people who have learned and mastered the secrets of network marketing and are making six- and seven-figure incomes – the vast majority of them right from their own homes.  The wonderful part about network marketing is that these small business owners usually consist of single entrepreneurs or couples, but these small businesses have made people millions of dollars with an initial investment that usually costs less than a typical car payment.  Many people have heard of these success stories, I want to help you become one of them.

You could already be on the right path, or soon you could be on the right path soon.  Simply stated, network marketing is extraordinarily unique.  How many businesses will let you start from scratch, with very little initial investment, no prior experience and give you a legitimate chance of becoming a millionaire?  You can succeed if you have little money now or even if you have made a lot of money from another source.

Let’s start today on your path to success in network marketing.

Dedicated to your success,

Jeffery Boyle

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Dough, wonga, greenbacks, cash. Just words, you might say, but they carry an eerie psychological force. Chew them over for a few moments, and you will become a different person. Simply thinking about words associated with money seems to makes us more self-reliant and less inclined to help others. And it gets weirder: just handling cash can take the sting out of social rejection and even diminish physical pain.

It is so funny that money and even talking about it can make people feel better about themselves and it even helps with rejection.  Money is just supposed to be a tool, right?  Apparently it is not a regular tool.  Tools like axes help cut down trees, and money is just supposed to be an economic tool, right?  Well, it’s not.

…traditional economists tell us, dispassionately set the price of anything from a loaf of bread to a painting by Picasso. Yet money stirs up more passion, stress and envy than any axe or hammer ever could. We just can’t seem to deal with it rationally… but why?

In his book, Science of Getting Rich, Wallace Wattles says:

A man develops in mind, soul, and body by making use of things, and society is so organized that man must have money in order to become the possessor of things; therefore, the basis of all advancement for man must be the science of getting rich.

The problem with society is that we don’t just see money as a way of personal development, it has many facets.  Buchanan’s article says the following things about money:

1. Some people seem addicted to accumulating it, while others can’t help maxing out their credit cards and find it impossible to save for a rainy day.
2. Some people’s brains can react to it as they would to a drug, while to others it is like a friend.
3. Desire for money gets cross-wired with our appetite for food.
4. Money is virtually synonymous with status – so much so that losing it can lead to depression and even suicide.
5. Those strongly motivated primarily on money are also more likely to find their marriage ending in divorce.
6. Financial strain can bring depression, perceived loss of control and reduced life expectancy.
7. People who felt rejected by others, or were subjected to physical pain, were subsequently less likely to give a monetary gift in a game situation.
8. Just handling paper money could reduce the distress associated with social exclusion, and also diminish the physical pain caused by touching very hot water.
9. When society does not work (in other words you are friendless) money is acting as a surrogate friend. Could that explain why some people focus on extrinsic aspirations at the expense of real social relationships?
10. Money, like nicotine or cocaine, can activate the brain’s pleasure centres, the neurological pathways that make biologically beneficial activities such as sex feel so rewarding.
11. Hungry volunteers were less likely to donate to charity than those who were satiated; those primed to have a high desire for money, by having imagined winning a big lottery, went on to eat the most candy in a taste test; and people whose appetites had been piqued by sitting in a room with a delicious smell, gave less money in a game situation than those who played in a normal-smelling room.
12. Hungry people are less likely to donate money to charity than those who are satiated

Love it or hate, money controls the lives of poor and rich.  Avoid talking about it if you want, but money will not avoid you, you are surrounded by it.  Money does mess with your mind, you must admit that it is important.  I would like to think that money is just a tool for me, but I must admit that the times in my life when I had no money, I thought about it all the time and it was often with a feeling of panic.  In the end I believe money magnifies our personalities in both lack and abundance. With money, if you are bad, you will be worse, if you are good you will be better. Unfortunately, when we are completely broke, we are often selfish and unwilling to “do unto others.”

What are your thoughts?

WHATEVER may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. No man can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money; for to unfold the soul and to develop talent he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with.

How do you feel about this paragraph? Give me your comments below.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to make more money.  I repeat, there is nothing wrong with wanting to make more money.

There is a book written over 100 years ago by Wallace Wattles that is likely what started the whole self-help revolution we see today.  In his incredible book he says:

It is perfectly right that you should desire to be rich; if you are a normal man or woman you cannot help doing so. It is perfectly right that you should give your best attention to the Science of Getting Rich, for it is the noblest and most necessary of all studies. If you neglect this study, you are derelict in your duty to yourself, to God and humanity; for you can render to God and humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself.

If you are afraid to talk about money, people will feel it either concsiously or subconsciously.  You cannot run from your fears.  You must accept the fact that God wants you to be the best you can be and today, you need money to buy food, clothing, shelter, give to charity, have leisure time from your hard work and have the resources to better educate yourself on the wonders of this world.

There are three motives for which we live; we live for the body, we live for the mind, we live for the soul. No one of these is better or holier than the other; all are alike desirable, and no one of the three–body, mind, or soul–can live fully if either of the others is cut short of full life and expression. It is not right or noble to live only for the soul and deny mind or body; and it is wrong to live for the intellect and deny body or soul.

Live for the soul and mind, but do not forget the body.  You can be comfortable making money, but first you must be comfortable talking about money.

Synthetic Vitamins are dangerous

I have recently been getting a lot of visitors to my site searching for information about the difference between synthetic and natural vitamins. There are so many doubts about what synthetic can do for you. Not just because of how a lab may make them, but also because of how they are packaged and delivered. One thing is certain, if you can get your vitamins from natural supplements or from your diet your are much better off.  I will finding some quotes about this topic and I will be telling you a bit about the author and his/her background when I get the quotes.  Take that into consideration when you read what they have to say.

Vitamin tablets typically contain a variety of fillers and while some of them are just pulchritudinous for you, you do need to be on the look exterior for others, or the risk of overdoing them. Soybean oil is a very common filler and very unhealthy filler found most often in gelcaps. Soybean oil can actually do more harm than the good of the vitamin because it is very high in trans fats ( these are the bad fats ) and can cause all sorts of heart problems as well being obesity. Another unnecessary filler to be on the lookout for is artificial color. Artificial colors have proven to be carcinogenic and many people are allergic to them too. Quote by Garland Choate, health enthusiast and former airline pilot.

The difference in quality (natural vs synthetic) is due to dosage amount, synthetic verses natural, and the range of ingredients. Synthetic vitamins are typically cheap, and typically sold in the supermarket. They typically lack the necessary molecular structure of the natural version which goes unrecognized by the body and are unlikely to improve the body’s cells.

A number of studies have had the aim of showing the impotency of vitamins — that vitamins are bad for you, that they have no effect. However the vitamins in question were in the main synthetic vitamins category. This is particularly the case as Mike Adams points out with Vitamin E studies conducted over 20 years. The aim was to discredit the vitamin and they used synthetic Vitamin E to prove it.

Adams points out in this article that the aim of the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) is to warn people about the dangers of synthetic vitamins — they can harm you or they have no effect. So not only do we have anecdotal evidence about the quality and efficacy of synthetic vitamins but now we have the apparent scientific evidence.

Studies involving Vitamin E have typically used a synthetic chemical which has a different molecular structure to the natural Vitamin E. Adams mentions that this has led to debate over safe dosage levels and about the benefits of taking antioxidants at all (3). At no time was there clarity about what was actually studied — synthetic or natural. This means that people could have been mislead and scared off from taking the natural Vitamin E.

Organic Consumers (www.organicconsumers.org) warns people against synthetic vitamins particularly; fat-soluble ones as these build up in the fat tissues, fat deposits and the liver. In addition they warn that the base of the synthetics can consist of petrochemical derivatives, nicotine and coal tars (by-products of coal).

Byron Richards points out what to look for when buying vitamins and says that it depends on the vitamin. In Vitamin B what is necessary are co-enzymes. His two part article is well worth reading. (www.naturalnews.com/023169.html)

With the price of groceries increasing, you may be considering a change in vitamin brands. First ask yourself whether the product is natural or synthetic. If it is natural, consider the dosage range and amount, and compare.

Lynn Berry – Lynn is not in the medical field by does a nice job of using references.

Stay stuned.  I will continue to find articles that may be of help to understand the difference between natural and synthetic supplements.

Dedicated to your health,

Jeff

1. Go to www.empowerz.com
2. In the middle of your screen it should say “start your domain name search here.” Enter your desired domain name (e.g. first & last name (John Smith)). Click “search.”
3. Select how you wish to have your domain name end (e.g., .com, .tv, .org)
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Continue.”
5. Now, enter your information, register and pay for your desired domain name. Dot com (.com) domains names are about $11.00 per year.
6. After your domain name is registered, visit www.empowerz.com again to login to your account with your username and password. Click “My Account” at top of page to login.
7. After successful login, click “Domains” on left side of screen.
8. Select the domain name you wish to have forwarded to your replicated website by clicking the box to the left of that name—a check mark should appear when you click box.
9. Different options will become illuminated above your domain name(s). Click “Forward”.
10. A box will appear with your forwarding options. Select “Enable Forwarding.” Then,  purchase 1 credit for $0.00. Then, select “302 Moved Temporarily.” Now, type in the full address to your replicated website (e.g. http://www.mysite.com/webalias)
11. Click “OK” button. Now, your personal domain name will automatically redirect to your replicated website.

For those who wish to create their own websites and not use the services provided them by your company, certain criteria must usually be met. Following is the criteria for Jus International when I was CEO/President. Check with your company for an updated policy so that you understand how to best stay within company regulations:

1. Any use of the Jus International logo and/or name on any material, including websites, is strictly PROHIBITED except by those who meet criteria and receive approval. To receive approval, contact Jus International via email at compliance@jus.net or call customer service at 208.846.7880 to explain and show explicitly how and where the Jús logo and/or name will be used.
2. Personal Jus websites, and any other IBO created material, must clearly state the words “Authorized Jus Independent Business Owner” in a conspicuous location. All material must be approved BEFORE it is used and distributed to prospects.
3. Personal Jus websites must display, in a conspicuous location, the Independent Business Owner medallion found on Jus replicated websites. The medallion can be found in the IBO’s back office. An explanation must be found close to said medallion which states, “If you wish to visit the official corporate website for Jus International, click here.” A link must be provided in this area to direct visitors to official corporate website of Jus International www.jus.net.
4. BEFORE personal Jus websites go active, the entirety of the site must be approved by Jus International. To receive approval, contact Jus International via email at compliance@jus.net or call for help with compliance at 208.846.7880.
5. If personal Jús websites, or any other material, are found to have not been approved beforehand by Jús International, the IBO who created such material will be asked to remove and discontinue use until Jus International can approve said material.

Answer: Yes, but it still works, and if it works, why fight it.

I have spent a lot of time this week calling purchased leads with an IBO. We have taken turns calling on these premium leads so he has an idea of how to cold call. It has been fun because I have done a lot of cold calling in my life, however, it is a lot of work and after many hours of calls we only have a few interested prospects. We also know that we will have a lot of work to get these prospects to become IBOs.

The same time we are making cold calls on leads we are also making his names list and calling his friends and family. We are having more success with the “old way” without question.

Meetings are good for belief, one on one meetings still build your base and your upline is still a powerful tool that deserves edification.  So many times, IBOs want to shortcut time-tested methods that still work today with new technologies.  I recommend that people not give up on what has worked for many years.  Friends, family and acquaintences have always been a good place to start.  You will feel very bad if you go to a meeting and see a friend has joined the business with another person.

I believe in social networking. I use twitter to notify IBO of news and good thoughts. I love Facebook but I don’t overdo it. I don’t invite IBOs to know about how I brush my teeth or when I like to go to bed. The new technologies are good but can be abused.  When things are abused, they stop being effective and simply become white noise.

Build your list, go to meetings for inspiration and don’t quit. You can succeed at this business.

In my tenure as CEO and President of Jus International, I was blessed to have been able to travel the globe mingling with entrepreneurs. From our build out of our Boise location to offices in other countries, we were able to fill rooms everywhere we went. It was fun documenting experiences from our first hotel meeting in Idaho to packed rooms in Japan, Taiwan and the Netherlands. It was a grand experience. I’m thankful to the entrepreneurs who shared their dreams with me across the globe.

Jus International Japan Meetings

Kunio Toma was a phenomenal leader for Jus International. He filled rooms from Tokyo to Sapporo. We started off in a building where Kunio Toma was able to rent out an entire floor, which he filled on a regular basis. It was a remarkable experience to travel Japan and see the rooms filled with eager entrepreneurs.

Jus International Taiwan -

In the shadows of the Taipai 101, we were able to secure a small office to prepare for the launch of Taiwan. Louisa and Mary Ku showed us quickly that we needed more room. They packed that small off to the bursting point every time they had a meeting.

Jus International Netherlands Prelaunch – Rotterdam, Netherlands – December 2008

The prelaunch activities in the Netherlands were incredibly successful. Over 700 people showed up from across the country to an incredible party and kick off event. John Lucardie, Layne Boyle, Kiki Kamerbeek and Ed Jansen made this a night to remember. Celebrity K1 kickboxing champion Remy Bonjasky even showed up.

Jus Night of the Stars – March 2009 -

Hundreds of people from all over the United States came to the Jus International Regional meeting.  It was a regional meeting, but we had people come from as far away as Virginia, Florida, Maryland, California, Washington, Oregon and everything in between.

It was a phenomenal experience for the hundreds of people who attended.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Answer – Competition is fine, but be careful, be very careful.  Be a good winner.

I love to play sports. I love competition. There is nothing like the thrill of a game and there is a great feeling of winning a well fought battle. However, after you win, there is no need to spit in the face of your competitors and taunt them after they loose.

CS Lewis said it pretty well when he talked about pride and competition.

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.

Take it with money. Greed will certainly make a man want money, for the sake of a better house, better holidays, better things to eat and drink. But only up to a point. What is it that makes a man with œ10,000 a year anxious to get œ20,000 a year? It is not the greed for more pleasure. œ10,000 will give all the luxuries that any man can really enjoy. It is Pride – the wish to be richer than some other rich man, and (still more) the wish for power. For, of course, power is what Pride really enjoys: there is nothing makes a man feel so superior to others as being able to move them about like toy soldiers. What makes a pretty girl spread misery wherever she goes by collecting admirers? Certainly not her sexual instinct: that kind of girl is quite often sexually frigid. It is Pride. What is it that makes a political leader or a whole nation go on and on, demanding more and more? Pride again. Pride is competitive by its very nature: that is why it goes on and on. If I am a proud man, then, as long as there is one man in the whole world more powerful, or richer, or cleverer than I, he is my rival and my enemy.

I believe that a major problem we see in our industry is that we spend so much time battling each other we don’t make our own companies the best they can be.  And I don’t just mean one company battle the other, but one line within the same company battle the other.  I would also be willing to bet that many of the companies in our industry also fail because the corporate leadership can’t balance their need for recognition with that of the field or the other officers within the company.

Network marketing is in a good spot.  The rest of the economy is in the tank.  We are thriving.  I heard a statistic that only 15% of the population is participating in any level in network marketing.  Who knows how many are actually doing something.  So instead of going after a huge segment of the population that is hurting we are going after each other.  STOP IT.

We can win in network marketing without crushing the competition. There is no need to demean and crush your upline, downline, company or competition.  The beauty of this wonderful industry is that you succeed by helping others.  We can change the fortunes of many, let’s just try doing it without rubbing salt in the wounds of our defeated foes, it is not productive.

Answer – success isn’t the result of spontaneous combustion. People must be willing to set themselves on fire.

It would be great if we could motivate ourselves and downline as easy as lighting a match on gasoline, but it doesn’t work that way. Some people can’t get motivated if their life depended on it. And frankly a complete life requires motivation.

If your downline can’t get excited about the business then quit waiting for them. Move on and hope they will some day see why you are on fire.

I have spent many hours on the road building downlines as an IBO and also a company executive.  One thing is for sure, some people do not deserve your time or your efforts.  There are many ways to build people, one of them is not doing all of the work for them.

You only have so much energy and so much time in the day.  You must be careful to spend time with the people who are willing to duplicate your efforts by helping others.  You must be careful that you never give anybody the indication that you will do everything for them.  Jim Rohn is right, you cannot carry people on your back to be successful in this business.

When you enroll a new person it is your duty to explain to them that they should be willing to spend 7-10 hours each week in business building exercises.  They must be willing to buy good books and listen to inspirational speeches instead of the radio on the way to work.  They must be willing to work as a team and not expect the upline to do all the work for them.

As an upline, you must be willing to spend the time to mentor, but not carry your downline.  There is a big difference.  Mentoring is done by teaching and doing.  You cannot expect most new people to make the first couple presentations alone.   However, if you are still showing all the plans for your new person in the second month, you likely do not have a real leader.

Learn to work with the people who need your help.  Be in front by example by always looking for new people yourself.  Learn to help those who deserve, not just those who need.

Answer – You always move on, but never give up, never surrender.

Today we met with a prospect we first contacted almost a year ago. When we first met, we spent almost a month trying to get him to join us. He eventually chose another company. We were disappointed, but we parted on very friendly terms.

However, we have stayed in touch periodically and remained friendly. After a year of not pushing but also not letting him forget, he now is quite interested.

Send top prospects an email monthly to say hi. Invite them to be a Facebook friend. Wish them happy birthday. Stay visible but not obtrusive. You never know what will come of it.

Answer: I hope you have signed up for a FREE Twitter account. If not get on it.

Twitter.com

Here’s something you can do within the next two minutes that can produce results for you almost immediately to build your existing downline and to get new leads.

If you haven’t heard of “Twitter” before, it is time to learn. I have always been a big advocate of technology but this one was built for network marketing. This post will teach you how to sign up, my next Twitter post will teach you how to use it. You need to know how it could help you build your business. This is a powerful tool and not just a toy for techies.

As I have been preparing social media ideas for my site and how they integrate into network marketing, I was blown away with the possibilities Twitter has for our business. This incredible lead generation and downline tool is a free service and is powerful.

Twitter has absolutely exploded into the social media scene and due to it being free and so useful, it will become even more powerful for our industry, even if they start to charge for it.

Fortune 500 companies like AT&T, State Farm Insurance, Verizon, Dell, IBM and many others are now using it to bond with their customers and promote their brand. If you haven’t yet created a free account you are missing the boat. Get on it.

It’s a great way to…

-Quickly reach new audiences of potential business partners and customers.

-Interact with each one of your downline on a personal and genuine level… while at the same time reaching huge numbers of people.

-Answer downline questions and inform them of upcoming products, events, or promotions.

-Build trust and get them bonded and connected to you by just being yourself.

You need to know that this could be one of the best tools you invest in all year to grow your business. And guess what, the investment is FREE.

Just follow these three simple steps.

1) To create your account, go to:

http://www.twitter.com

2) Click on the “Join The Conversation” button in the middle of the page.

3) Enter your name and email address and choose a username and password.

Very Simple stuff.

Once you create your account visit me at: http://www.twitter.com/jeffboyle

Then click the “follow” button that’s displayed underneath my photo.

Here’s what will happen after that.

You will start to receive daily thoughts on being positive and how to build your own personal brand and your business.

So take a few minutes to create an account at http://www.twitter.com.

Then visit my page at:

http://www.twitter.com/jeffboyle

And click the “follow” button that’s displayed underneath my photo.

Dedicated To Your Success,

Jeff

Answer – This one is simple; edify, edify and then edify some more.

There is nothing that will destroy momentum and a team mentality faster than negativity creep. Network Marketing groups should not resemble an episode of Survivor or the board room with Donald Trump on the Apprentice.

If you want to grow then keep negative comments about your company, upline, meetings, downline, crossline, the weather, taxes, competition, your wife, your teenagers, Obama, Republicans, communism, and gingivitis to yourself. If you have struggles, find a mentor and look to find solutions. If you find a shoulder to cry on, then you will just keep crying.  Don’t do it.

Get tough and you can get rich. Find the positive in life and talk nice about others, it will be incredible for your business.

In traditional business only 29% of new businesses are still in existence at the end of year 10.  The largest percentage of failure comes in the first 5 years, when half of startups go belly up.   Many critics of network marketing claim that the failure rate is much higher than that for anyone choosing to get involved in the industry.

Although I will not argue that getting involved into any type of business does not have its risks, network marketing has many advantages over traditional businesses regardless of what critics claim to be its success rates.  The main advantage of network marketing is the low startup costs involved with a potential huge rate of return.  Additionally, if the critics really looked at the individuals who treated their networking business as a full-time career and not a hobby, they would see a large number of six figure earners.  Numbers that are much higher than corporate America employees or small business entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this Success Answer is not to debate the merits of network marketing versus traditional businesses, but to give you a couple ideas that will help you keep in mind as you start you network-marketing career:

•    Realistic Expectations and a never die attitude.  When I first joined network marketing when I was 22 I expected to make $5,000 a month in a year.  After 9 months of doing about 10 presentations a month, I had made a total of $18.  $2 a month is not very good.  I changed who I was talking to, I got better at presenting, and I did not quit.  Never give up, never surrender.
•    Get better, don’t quit – Learn how to sell.  Yes, I said it, learn to sale.  My 2 year old rocks at selling.  He asks until he gets it.  I don’t suggest laying on the floor in a tantrum if people don’t get in with you, but believe in your product and realize that the best lawyers are good at selling their product.  The best actors know how to sell their services.  The best network marketers know how to sell.  You should too.
•    Work full or part time, not sometimes.  A career pays, a hobby costs.  Decide you will stop thinking about your business and just build it.  Build it consistently, build it daily, build it with passion.

A goal is really just a dream with a plan and a deadline.   But real goal making is more complicated than just telling yourself that you want something.  Real goal making includes accountability, commitment, and writing down one’s goals.  Research recently conducted by Dr. Gail Matthews shows that people who wrote down their goals, shared this information with a friend, and sent weekly updates to that friend were on average 33% more successful in accomplishing their stated goals than those who merely formulated goals.  In other words, write it down and get a mentor to share your goals with.

In the previous step, I asked you to spend some time analyzing your starting point in network marketing by filling out a self-analysis form.  The reason I believe that self-analysis is so important is that it gives you a realistic picture of where you are right now and where you want to be.  Now that you understand where you stand today, you need to have an understanding of what it will take to get where you want to be.  Time to become a goal achiever.

This part of Success Answers is detailed and will take you some time to complete.  However, failure to treat your goals properly will allow you to minimize their importance and you will lose valuable time in achieving your dreams.  In fact, failure to go through the steps I describe will likely result in rationalizing away your dreams as being unachievable.

Abraham Maslow said, “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”  I am here to tell you that your Creator has great plans for you.  You are capable of greatness and understanding goals and their importance will help you achieve greatness.  Don’t sell yourself short.  Become great, become a goal achiever.

“Mind is the master power that mold and makes
and man is mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of thought, and, shaping what he wills
Brings forth a thousand joys, and a thousand ills.
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass
Environment is but his looking glass.”
James Allen

Before we go through the process of how to properly set goals, remember that you will never have a perfect knowledge of how to get something done before you start.  You do not learn to swim by reading a book.  You learn to swim by getting in the water.  Ralph Waldlo Emerson said, “Do the thing and you will get the energy to do the thing.”
Goals are Serious Business

“A goal that is casually set and lightly taken
is freely abandoned at the first obstacle.”
Zig Ziglar

Your goals will scare you, but don’t let that stop you.  If you are not a little worried about how you will achieve your goal, it is not likely big enough.  Make your goal big and beautiful.  Make your goal something you are passionate about.  Your goal should be something you want, not just something you need.  Your wants will inspire you to do things your needs can’t get you to do.

If you knew you could achieve anything what would you want?  Don’t be afraid to go wild here.  List 30 things you REALLY want, not need:

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Now that you have written down 30 things you want, it is time to prioritize them in order of importance.  Put the top 10 from above in order of importance in the “A” group, the next 10 in the “B” group and the last 10 in the “C” group.  A1 should be what you want most and are most passionate about.  A1 should excite you and scare you at the same time.  It should be something that makes you work harder than you have ever worked before.  A1 will also be the goal that you will write down on a goal card and carry with you.  The other 29 goals will be important to remember and many of which may be accomplished on your way to achieving your A1 goal.

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Now that you have prioritized your goals and have chose the one most important, you must now build an image of your goal in your mind in the present, not the future.  When you create a present need in your mind for your desired goal; your thoughts, actions and results will attract to you what you desire.  You must make a goal card and carry it with you.  Read your goal aloud each day and put a date on when you will achieve it.

The goal card can by simple with the date on top and a statement telling yourself that you have your goal accomplished.  A phrase such as, “I am happy and excited now that …”

Do not underestimate the simple importance of your goal card.  Simply having it with you will be important because it will be a constant reminder.  If you miss the date, then reset it. Get passionate about your goal.  Take pictures of your goal, get brochures, have some fun with it.  Make it apart of your daily thoughts.

If you accomplish your goal, then choose another more grandiose goal to pursue.  Never give up, never surrender, and have fun pursuing your dreams.

Answer: Learn to stretch yourself and create achievable goals.

Personal Success Assessment Form

To achieve more, you must be more. In order for you to truly understand where you are today, you must honestly assess where you are right now. A good way to understand where you are is by asking yourself some questions:

1. Do you spend time everyday talking to new prospects and following up with existing IBOs in your group?
2. Are you spending time each day learning more about people and the sales process?
3. Do you have a mentor that you can communicate with on a regular basis?
4. Do you have written goals with the date you want to achieve them?

Unless you responded yes to each question, you are likely selling yourself short in your business, and frankly in life. Don’t feel too bad, you are in the majority. Less than 30 percent of adults ever put their goals into writing. However, if you want to succeed at a high level you will need to learn to put your dreams into writing and set a date to achieve those dreams.

Whether or not you have practiced putting your goals into writing, a personal assessment of what you want to achieve in your network marketing business will be essential to your success. Even if you have been successful in other traditional businesses, the following assessment should be filled out and shared with an upline mentor. Together, you can build your future better by understanding what you want to achieve and what you are willing to do to achieve it.

Click Here for the Personal Assessment form.

Success Answer 1 – Successful network marketers dedicate themselves to a pattern of success and then teach others to follow.

Building a successful networking business starts with having a solid foundation. I believe that a solid foundation is built upon obtaining the right information and then becoming dedicated to learning and improvement.

I will be laying out a series of Success Answers that have been carefully created to help you maximize your chance for success. If you are empowered with the right information from the start you can create a solid foundation built on the right attitude and by creating proper expectations for your business. Two of the main causes of failure in network marketing are unrealistic expectations and lack of marketing skills. Nobody that is new to network marketing starts their business with all the knowledge and skills they need to build their business. Do not let this lack stop you from starting right away.

We learn to do by doing. Ralph Waldo Emerson stated it perfectly when he said, “Do the thing, and you will get the energy to do the thing.” You will never reach a destination on your journey if you wait for every light to turn green before you leave your garage. The same is true for your Jus International business. Get started today but do it with a dedication to learning as you go.

When you prepare to present the opportunity to others by studying the compensation plan and marketing techniques you will acquire important knowledge, for where we carry the lantern to light the path of others we light or own way. As we analyze and arrange the compensation/marketing plan to present to others, we have clarified our own minds. As we explain that which we are learning ourselves there seems to come to us an unfolding of additional information, and enlargement of our understandings, new connections and applications.

Commit to learning something new each day. Take notes on what you have learned and commit to helping others get what they need from this amazing network marketing industry.

Network Marketing Success Answers

“As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.” – James Allen

This is the starting point of the most comprehensive business growth-training program in network marketing today, period!

Part of achieving success in network marketing or in anything of worth, proper thinking and understanding of the universal laws of success is vital.
A comprehensive understanding of the compensation plan and products will be important to your success, but become of less importance if you do not have an understanding yourself, how to communicate well with other people and your desire to become a student of success. Knowledge not applied is of little use. The Success Answers main goal is to improve the life of our employees and our independent business owners (IBOs). The Answers also strive to help you:
• Overcome the anxiety associated with prospecting
• Teach you proper self-motivation skills
• Encourage learning innovative skills and techniques
• End Self-Sabotage
• Help IBOs use new marketing technology
• Help IBOs create and spend budgets wisely
• Create new leads and learn to control their flow
• Dramatically improve sales of products and enrollment of new IBOs
• Improve Productivity
• Maximize Positive Thinking
• Stimulate Financial and Emotional Prosperity
• Promote Self-Motivation

An Accurate Self-Assessment
Today is just the start of an exciting journey on which you are about to embark. I hope the things that you learn in Success Answers will help you to not only be more successful in your network marketing business, but also in all other areas of your life. To be truly successful, a person must be balanced in all areas of life; mind, body and soul. Although the Success Answers can point you in the right direction, life balance is up to you. The Success Answers is not just about building your networking business; it is about you and your continued personal growth.

Any well-planned journey must have:
• A clear understanding of where the journey begins;
• Check points en route to help you stay on course;
• A clear understanding of your destination;
• A commitment to successfully complete the journey, regardless of the detours that you might encounter en route.

You will agree that it is very foolish for a person to erroneously say they are presently in Boise, Idaho and their destination is New York, New York, if they were actually in Portland, Oregon with New York, New York as their final destination. As silly as this example may seem, a very similar error is made millions of time each day by people incorrectly assessing where they really are in their approach to life. Although some people are simply unaware of where they are in life, most people are not honest in their personal assessment of themselves.

As you begin you journey with your network marketing business, an honest self-assessment will reveal:
• The starting point of your journey;
• Adjustments in your thinking that must be made;
• Approximate how long it will take to finish your journey.

The Success Answers are general in nature, but you must be prepared to internalize this program and make it your own. Although each us must overcome something different to achieve success, many obstacles are universal in nature and you can customize this program internally to achieve the levels of success you feel you can achieve. Only you can truly overcome your past obstacles to success. You are the master of your destiny and only you can alter your habits. Commit to yourself and commit to success.

The best way to internalize this program and make it your own is to constantly be asking how the messages pertain to you. Constantly ask what this means to you and how you can apply it to your life. Think frequently about these new ideas. Challenge yourself to apply them in the manner best suited to achieve your new goals.
• Research indicates that your level of retention and understanding of materials is multiplied when you HEAR AND SEE it.
• Take ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes every day to listen to inspirational audios. Go to my site, jefferyboyle.com and look at my Recommended Reading which also includes some great audios.
• Listen to inspirational audios in your car at all times. Listen as you drive. This will quickly become a habit. Then you will have turned your automobile into a learning center. If you drive 25,000 miles a year, you are in your car for approximately thirteen, forty-hour weeks each year.
• Have a note pad and pen handy at all times. The Success Answers program will become a mental stimulant. Ideas and solutions to present problems will fly into your mind; these ideas should be recorded, otherwise they may be lost forever.
• Do not attempt to force others into your business or improve themselves. Force negates. Others will see a change in your life and will want to be a part of that positive change.
• You cannot listen to positive audios or books often enough. Listen to the same message numerous times. Repetition will help keep you sharp and remind you to practice things you may have missed in the beginning. Keep listening and reading this material until you become aware that the ideas are a habitual part of your behavior.
• When you are studying self-improvement, do not permit others to disturb you with meaningless conversation that will distract your prosperous thought patterns.

How to best use the Answers

As the new CEO to your network marketing business, this is your sales training program, your CEO training program (really teaches you how to be an outstanding CEO of your own network marketing business), your management training program (shows how to run your company for maximum efficiency and performance), it’s your turnkey enrolling training program (every person you enroll should go through this program), and it’s the program that will teach you how to be a better marketer than anyone, period.

How to use this program: This is not an EVENT training program, where you go through the program once and forget 98% of it by the time you reach the end of it. The Answers are designed to be used continuously as a SKILLS-BUILDING program. To achieve success in training programs IBOs will be best off by asking themselves, “How do you acquire skill?” Can you acquire skill from a single tennis lesson? No. You take the lesson and then you practice it and work with what you learn and then you take the lesson again.

That is the design of this fantastic program. For example, let’s say you want to sharpen your selling process and you go through the skill-building module on selling and creating a detailed and perfected process FOR selling. You go through it, you do all the exercises, everyone takes good notes and everyone has a good experience and learns a lot. Does that mean that you are all now a master of the sales process? No, that means that more often now, many aspects of what was covered will be thought about and even occasionally acted upon.

To get to MASTER level skills, we recommend that every 90 days you come back and go through the same exercises once again with your top leaders. You will be surprised at how much more you get out of a training experience the SECOND and THIRD times. If you truly want to create a master-level sales team/effort, you must revisit that module every three months at a minimum. The same is true for time management, or presenting, or marketing, or advertising, etc… each area of SKILL must be worked at.

The Answers are designed to be used two ways: Linear and modular. If you went through the program in a linear fashion, starting with the first module and ending with the last module, it would take you through the perfect path to growing your company (more on this below). However, it is also modular and can be accessed that way as well. Meaning, if you are working on enrolling right now, you can go directly to that module and it will give you what you need in a more surgical fashion. Or if you need to improve your selling, you can go right to that module and it will help you detail and profoundly improve your selling process and systems.

This program is set up like your company SHOULD be set up. Meaning, the order of the modules flow in a way that guides you on how to set up a solid and profitable company.

The BEST WAY to go through the training program: The best way to go through the training program is to pretend that you just paid $8000 to attend a four-day live event to really get serious about your business.

Here’s what will happen: You will be utterly overwhelmed with insights, ideas, concepts and ways to improve every single aspect of your business. But you now know what you have. You will now know the enormous resource that is now at your disposal. You will also be able to properly prioritize based upon your individual needs.

The SECOND BEST WAY to go through the program is in a linear fashion, in the order in which the modules are labeled (starting with module one and going through to the end), attempting to get through it as fast as possible. Again, we want you to know what you have, even if you can’t get to improving everything all at once. You’ll see the vast possibilities.

The NEXT BEST WAY to go through the program, if you’re already overwhelmed, is to take it in bite-sized pieces as you go, learning and prioritizing according to your needs right now (as mentioned above).  The online version will only be available in bite size chunks.

The ULTIMATE LESSON about the program is that it is a skill-building program for life. This program was created to help you quickly start a profitable business (or double the sales of your business if you are already an established IBO) and similar training has helped other traditional and network marketers double in size for 20 years using these strategies and tactics and I am dedicated to helping you improve your skills in every area covered. I hope you will commit to the same. If you do, you will be a master sales, management and marketing genius compared to most traditional companies and especially other network marketers. Most network marketers really don’t market, manage and sell very well. You’ll agree completely as you learn what Success Answers has to offer.

BIOFLAVONOIDS (FLAVONOIDS):
Most commonly known for their antioxidant activity. Humans and animals inject significant quantities of flavonoids in their diets. They have been referred to as “nature’s biological response modifiers” because of their ability to modify the body’s reaction to allergens, viruses, and carcinogens. They show anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-cancer activity.Consumers and food manufacturers have become interested in flavonoids for their medicinal properties, especially their potential role in the prevention of cancers and cardiovascular disease. The body sees the flavonoids as foreign compounds, and the process of gearing up to get rid of unwanted compounds also helps eliminate mutagens and carcinogens and therefore may be of value in cancer prevention. Flavonoids could also induce mechanisms that help kill cancer cells and inhibit tumor invasion. Only small amounts of flavonoids are necessary to see medical benefits.
Important flavonoids: quercetin, epicatechin, and oligomeric proanthocyanidins.
Good Sources: berries, green tea, and seabuckthorn
Jús International: 9,604mg/L
Lipton Green Tea: 99mg/L (flavonoid antioxidants)

ANTHOCYANINS:
Flavonoid pigments that may appear red, purple, or blue, according to PH. They also act as powerful antioxidants. Their antioxidant properties are maintained even after they are eaten. Fruits that are exposed to strong sunlight develop high levels of anthocyanins. Rich in Anthocyanins: açaí, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, purple grape.
Several studies are underway to examine anti-cancer effects of black raspberries and cranberries on tumors in the esophagus, prostate, and colon.
Anthocyanins neutralize enzymes that destroy connective tissue and have been found to help in the reversal of age related neurological deficits.
Example: açaí has about 320mg per 100 g (over 3 times the anthocyanins as red wine volume per volume)
Jús International: 51.42mg/L

PHENOLICS:
Studies indicate that regular intake of fruit and green tea is associated with a reduced number of cancer and coronary diseases. The protective effect has been attributable, at least in part, to polyphenols, which are predominately found in skins, seeds, and stems.
The higher the total phenolic score, the greater the availability of antioxidants in the liquid.
Concord Grape Juice: 2,307mg/L
Leading mangosteen drink: 2,102mg/L
Leading açaí drink: 1,848mg/L
Jús International: 9,696mg/L

PAC:
Proanthocyanidin (a.k.a. condensed tannins) levels are high in cranberries. PACs are natural plant compounds with antioxidant, anti-adhesion, and anti-bacterial health promoting properties. PAC levels are measured by HPLC analysis (high-performance liquid chromatography).
Most notably found in: cranberries, grape seeds and skin, bilberries, seabuckthorn oil, and apples.
Proanthocyanidins suppress production of a protein that constricts blood vessels.
Linked to a reduced risk of coronary heart disease and to lower overall mortality.

They also play a role in the stabilization of collagen and maintenance of elastin (critical proteins in connective tissue that support organs, joints, blood vessels, and muscle. Their antioxidant capabilities are 20 times more powerful than vitamin C. They also:

* Reduce histamine production and are used in allergy treatment
* Help improve circulation (very important for diabetics, stroke victims, arthritics, and smokers)
* Help collagen repair (the breakdown of collagen is what causes wrinkles) and keep skin elastic, smooth, and wrinkle-free
* Act as an internal sunscreen
* Cross the blood-brain barrier to protect the blood vessels in the brain (this can result in increased mental acuity, a decreased potential for stroke, and possibly in fighting senility)
* Cranberry PACs have been shown to be uniquely effective in supporting urinary tract health via their bacterial anti-adhesion ability.
* Cranberry PACs contain a unique A-type structure, while most other plants contain only the more common B-type PACs. It is the A-type PACs that are responsible for the anti-adhesion mechanism.

Red Wine: 3000mg/L
White Wine: 350mg/L
Jús International: 3,629mg/L

All of the above supports the French Paradox which hypothesizes that intake of proanthocyanidins and other flavonoids from regular consumption of red wines prevents occurrence of a higher disease rate (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes) in French citizens on high-fat diets.

Answer:
If you look at the amount of the total “Antioxidant Blend” you see there is 48 mg compared to 11,000 mg of the other juices. When you add all of the ingredients together to get 48 mg, green and white tea only comprise a small amount per serving of the Jus. When you then realize that green tea and white tea have many components outside of caffeine, you see that it is not necessary to chemically remove the caffeine. There is so little caffeine on the tests that it does not actually show up on our tests of having a measurable amount. It does not have to then be decaffeinated because it does not register having caffeine in the first place. No chemicals are used then to strip it out.

Hope that helps.

Jeff

Newbies to network marketing often think they will be making six figures in their first year because the person who sponsored them gave them false expectations.  The truth of the matter is, the people who make six figures annually or more in network marketing treat their business as a career, while most people treat their networking business as a hobby.  Careers make you money, hobbies cost you money.

I was recently passed on some interesting statistics about network marketing from a company that trains IBOs and distributors of many companies:

1. First Year Retention: one of the key factors in team building is first year retention.  Did you know that 85% of all distributors who renew at the end of their first year stay in business for an average of 8 years?
2. 100K Earners:  another interesting fact is that about 20% to 30% of all distributors who work their business 40 hours a week or more earn over 100K a year.

Whether or not you believe you can become rich in network marketing, there is obviously many people who succeed at high levels in network marketing and there are many more who fail or quit.  This is true in every profession, but networking seems to get an unfair reputation compared to other professions.  What I hope to achieve with my Network Marketing Success Answers is to give you the information and training that you need to be a member of the success group and not the group of those who have failed at network marketing.

Stay tuned for more information and be sure to send me questions and comments as we go.

Dedicated to your success,

Jeffery Boyle
Founder
Jus International

By Lee Vander Boegh

Our bodies are truly amazing. Despite the punishment we put them through – from digesting processed foods to falling down stairs – they seem to come through with flying colors. This doesn’t come without fuel requirements, though; and just like a high performance machine, the quality of energy going in can make a tremendous difference in how the body responds, heals and even grows stronger.
Scientists continually tout the health benefits of consuming fruits, and for good reason. High in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, they give the human body the edge it needs to stay sharp, focused and healthy.

Bilberries: Keeps your eyes healthy.
A good source of quercetin, an antioxidant, bilberries have been shown to reduce age-related macular degeneration and even boosts night vision

Blueberries:  Promotes urinary health, fights cancers.
Studied in the context of prostate and liver cancer cells, the compounds in blueberries demonstrated the abilities to attack and prevent certain cancers.

Cherries: Relieves the pain of arthritis and gout.
Many consumers report pain reduction after eating cherries, although science has yet to determine the exact mechanism. Cherries also contain powerful disease-fighting antioxidants.

Grapes: Lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol.
Not only do grapes play a role in cholesterol regulation, they also contain resveratrol, which has been show to slow the effects of aging.

Cranberries: Promotes healthy skin, kidneys and urinary tract.
Scientists say this Thanksgiving staple has an anti-bacterial effect in the bladder, keeping it and the rest of the urinary tract healthy.

Pomegranate: Fights cancer and gets oxygen where it’s needed most.
A recent study presented at the American Urological Association suggests that consuming pomegranate juice extends the time it takes prostate cancer markers to double. Furthermore, juice drinkers withstood less oxygen deficiency to the heart during strenuous exercise than non drinkers.

Raspberries: Shown to inhibit tumor growth.
Among the many vitamins, minerals and antioxidants found in raspberries, this fruit is one of the best sources of ellagic acid, a compound shown to slow tumors.

Strawberries: Can help improve short-term memory, fights inflammation.
Cramming for an exam? The USDA and Tufts University say the combination of vitamins and antioxidants in strawberries make it easier to remember the details.

Wolfberries: Fights inflammation, cancers, diabetes, premature aging, memory loss, vision degeneration and lung disorders.
Wolfberries are packed with fiber, omega-3, omega-6, protein, calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, selenium, vitamin B2, vitamin C, beta-carotene, zeaxanthin and polysaccharides.

Prunes: Enhances digestive health.
Prunes have long been recognized for their high fiber content, but they are also good sources of vitamin C and antioxidants, particularly phenolics, neochlorogenic acid and chlorogenic acid.

SIDEBAR:
Even though “antioxidant” has become a household term, understanding what they are and how they affect the body is still often shrouded behind a veil of mystique. In the simplest terms, antioxidants prevent – you guessed it – oxygen; or more specifically, oxidation. So what’s the big deal? Our bodies need oxygen, right? Yes and no. While oxygen is one of our fundamental requirements of life (if you don’t believe me, hold your breath until I say to stop… good morning! how was your nap?), it also gradually breaks down our bodies’ cellular infrastructure with the same kind of chemical reaction that makes metal rust.
What’s worse is that when the cells in our bodies ‘rust,’ they become free radicals – which despite their namesakes have nothing to do with surfboard stunts. Instead, these harmful villains start chain reactions that scientists link to such maladies as cancer, Parkinson’s disease, senility, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s. Furthermore, some researchers suggest that oxidation plays a large role in the aging process. Therefore, it’s possible that a strong supply of antioxidants might actually make us grow old slower.
Our bodies are constantly fighting free radicals. Its weapon: antioxidants. So why not give your body the salvo it needs to shock and awe these malicious troublemakers in their tracks?

Jus Momentum 2008

Las Vegas was a great place to launch Jus.  The hundreds of people in attendance had an incredible time and were a part of history.  Before Jus International had officially launched, we had already paid over a half a million dollars in commissions and we were already in two countries.  2009 will be something remarkable.

I was incredibly proud to be a part of a growing team that believes so much in each other and the future of a company can truly make a difference in people’s lives.  At the event we proud to have Troy McClain give us a self-marketing speech, hear from many of our successful IBOs, and announce the Jus Jel that will available in 2009.

We had IBOs from all across the country and two countries: Taiwan and Japan.  Japan brought a great group of people.  Although we had been shipping products to Japan, we were not officially open and we had already qualified ambassadors who were a part of the trip.  We believe Japan has a great future with Jus.  The Japanese IBOs were also thrilled to welcome Rick Durham as he flew in on his private plane for the event.

I also had the incredible opportunity to bring my wife and oldest son.  I am passionate about what this business will do for people involved, but my reason to build this business has everything to do with my own family.  I was so happy to have Parker and Angela with me for this great start of our company. I even found time to go to Circus Circus with Parker and Phil.  We rode roller coasters, got fake tatoos and went rock climbing, it was a great day and a great event.

There are a ton of great photos at Jus Gallery, just click on the link to see a ton of great photos.

The first IBO reward trip was a Bahama cruise.  It was incredible.

The 15 couples that went had an incredible time.  Aside from the great food on the ship, we rode scooters, acted like teenagers on the beach and grew together as a team.  We had an incredible trip.

The Boyle-er Maker: Jus International CEO Jeff Boyle is no stranger to taking big risks
By Lee Vander Boegh
Jeff Boyle doesn’t sleep much. Partly because his fledgling business, Jus International, is growing faster than the stubble he doesn’t have time to shave, and partly because of a constant adjustment to jet lag. He’s sitting directly across from me, shuffling through his iPhone’s calendar in a way that says “What day is this?” With a few quick thumb taps he either shoots off a text message, exits his system or launches a space satellite (okay, so I don’t have an iPhone and can only guess at the marvelous things they do – is that a crime?). He cautiously sets it on his desk and looks up to me. He doesn’t say anything, but his mannerisms sheepishly say “Sorry.”

For a man who has experimented with entrepreneurialism since age eight, business comes naturally. But it’s obvious he’s still adjusting into his chief executive role. He hasn’t mastered the “I-command-the-room-anytime-I’m-here” body language or vocal inflections, and it’s not clear that he even wants to. He seems pleased when clients and visitors mistake him for just another guy at the office.

But his office isn’t a mom-and-pop startup, unless mom-and-pop startups rake in millions of dollars in revenue before they officially launch. It’s the result of strategic planning, constant jet jumping and numerous sleepless nights that have got the company this far.

The demands of Jus International are pretty intense, but it’s by Boyle’s own design. He’s fidgety and can’t sit still for long, so any notion of slowing down borderline repulses him. Besides, it’s this drive that has propelled this company thus far.

“As soon as you stop growing, you start dying,” he said. “You can’t stop setting goals. That’s the beginning of the end.”

For a company that’s only been shipping its product, Jus (pronounced “Juice”) for about half a year, it isn’t likely going to stop growing anytime soon. The business is planning its official launch this fall, which includes a satellite division in Japan – a destination he’s visited several times already.

“It’s amazing to me to see how far this has come in such a short time,” he recently told his staff. “But it’s going to get even better. It will get better.”

Jus International’s growth means that Boyle, who once handled nearly every element of the business with his own hands, has gradually transitioned himself from a jack-of-all-trades technical operator to an organization manager. Though it’s obvious he still itches to get his hands dirty, the workload is simply too tremendous. He’s confident that his staff can handle any task with the same tenacity and attention to detail that he expects from himself. Besides, taking production tasks off his plate gives him more time to do what he built his business for: meeting and networking with people.

“I’d love nothing more than to give my day-to-day activities to a good staff,” he said. “But even then I’d be in the field working.”

Field work is the cornerstone of any network marketing business, and Jus International is no exception. As the company’s face, Boyle’s exposure to new and existing clients is mandatory. Because he has been involved in the industry since college, he doesn’t consider networking a necessary evil. It’s a desired, cathartic experience – like a runner who constantly works for that endorphin kick. Ask him about networking and his entire persona changes; his posture strengthens and his voice relaxes.

“The most fun thing in the world is to build a network marketing business,” he says. “I do miss (working as an independent business owner) on the ground floor.” Remembering his college Amway days, he adds, “I love the idea of working with people and building a business without millions of dollars of upfront capital. And learning from mentors who want you to succeed as they want (to succeed), it’s really unbelievable.”

The ground floor is pretty much the polar opposite of where he’s at with Jus. Instead of building a business within the pre-established framework of an umbrella company, Boyle is the umbrella. He’s ultimately the one who decides on protocols like compensation plans and marketing systems; he was even responsible for the product itself. Instead of building a big personal network, he’s making sure the taxes get paid, the products get manufactured and shipped to the correct places and the customers are happy.

“They have a more fun job then I do,” he concedes.
In many ways, Boyle is a study in irony. He considers himself an adrenaline junkie, yet holds a law degree – something not often associated with extreme lifestyles. He’s jumped out of soaring airplanes and jumps motorcycles, but he drives a modest Ford Focus. He has leveraged his personal assets as often as sports superstars come out of retirement, but doesn’t come off as worried about finances.

“It’s a matter of doing what it takes to get the job done,” he has said, referring to his sometimes acrobatic financing solutions.

Even Jus International didn’t come about without some financial creativity. Starting out with only an idea, he and his partners found themselves at a roadblock. Most companies wanted about $50,000 to develop a product, and another $30,000 to $40,000 to produce the first sample – money that neither Boyle nor his executive partners had. So he created a working relationship with one particular company by convincing them that money was going to come in – and thus the Jus formula was born.

By this time he had also crafted a relationship with Aries Capital, a venture finance company. But when the first Jus prototype rolled out, Aires wasn’t as convinced as Boyle. “Aires wanted to make sure that it was the best product and besides that, they wanted to know that we had people who were going to consume it,” he said. So Boyle and his team created the working model for Jus International and signed people into the program by the masses – all without a physical product yet.  Armed with a solid enrollment base and a product that had just topped all quality scales, Aries gave the nod.

“I was golfing with a friend when they called me and said they were going to do this and I was a mess the rest of the time,” he said. “It was an unbelievable experience to have them tell us yes after so much work, after so much time, after so much guess that it wasn’t going to happen.”

That’s been about a year ago. Since then Jus International has upgraded its office space, streamlined its logistics and strengthened its organizational structure to handle the overflowing response. Jus ads have permeated several media markets, hitting every medium from magazines to television to Internet.

Boyle tries not to bask in the success just yet. By the time this publication prints, Jus will have barely launched on the full scale; that’s when Boyle feels like he can take a second to celebrate. At least that’s what he says. If history is any indication, he won’t even stop to breathe – he’ll just focus on the next milestone.

“The owner of my company has no idea what he is doing!”
What’s the biggest difference between employers and employees? Experience? Education? Expertise? The true answer might surprise you: courage. Most employees are afraid to take the scary financial leap of faith that their boss took. And considering the overwhelming majority of the population isn’t willing to make the sacrifices needed to own or run their own business, the rank-in-file will naively hold to unfair misconceptions.
As an employer myself, I’d like to let everyone know that gutsy entrepreneurs can succeed, even in today’s business climate. Here are a few valuable lessons I’ve learned along the way:
1.    It is extraordinarily difficult to become financially rich working for someone else. As Americans, we are lucky in that we live in a country with a Gross Domestic Product that exceeds those of the next five countries combined. In December, I traveled across three continents and became very aware that no other country offers the same opportunities we have here in the good ole USA. If you are dedicated and willing to work, consider becoming rich while working for your favorite boss: you.
2.    Estimate how much money it takes to run your own business, then double it. Felix Dennis, a famous magazine publisher, described how to get capital: inherit it, steal it, win it, marry it, earn it or borrow it. I certainly don’t advocate stealing it (and few of us are lucky enough to marry, win or inherit it), which means most of us must earn or borrow it. But never underestimate the financial requirements of getting a traditional business off the ground. If money is tight, consider a business that needs little startup capital such as a home-based or network marketing businesses. Using other people’s money means you play by their rules – which leads me to the golden rule: he who has the gold rules.
3.    A partnership is like a marriage without love. While a good business partner can take a business to dizzying heights, a bad partner can send it into a death spiral. Draft a solid legal document that clearly states the terms, rules and expectations of the partnership. Nothing clouds the memory like greed and time. Spending $500 with an attorney now can save you years of heartache and precious financial resources in the future.
4.    Darling, luck favors the prepared. Thank you Edna “E” Mode for that insight. Luck rarely finds those unwilling to take a chance. Sweat, passion and perseverance are the most important ingredients to “getting lucky.”
5.    Take a leap and a net will appear. Don’t jump without a plan. But don’t wait for every light to be green before you pull out of the driveway.

Owning and running your own business isn’t always fun and games. Even the most prepared bosses encounter bumps along the way. But nothing of value comes without sacrifice and effort.

If you’ve got the courage, I strongly urge you to consider working for yourself. Words can’t describe the feeling of watching your business flourish.

2009 will be an incredible year at Jus.  Expect the momentum in your downline too, it will happen if you do.

We at Jus do our homework before we enter a new country.  Right now we are doing our due diligence on the Netherlands and Taiwan.  We have not set a time to go or when it will exactly happen, but I was very impressed at how dedicated the people are in both countries to being a part of Jus.

We had over 500 people show up to an event in Rotterdam, in the the Netherlands.  I met with many top leaders from other coutries in Tawain.  The 24,000 miles I travelled this month told me that our product is wanted everywhere.  Our compensation plan is providing hope in a down economy.  And, people in the US are spreading this Jus message in impressive ways.

I am happy to be a part of this growing Jus family.  I can’t wait to see what happens in 2009.

Primary reason for joining an MLM program (Men, Women, All):
a.    More money: 59% 29% 49%
-  “More money” responses included those, which involved any financial gain, such as “funds to invest,” or “retirement account.”
-  Women seemed to see money more as a means to an end. They tended to answer more from the heart, with what they wished to achieve with the money they earned.
b.    More free time: 10% 36% 19%
-  “More free time” responses included such goals as “waking up later,” “spending more time with family,” or “work at home/no more commuting.”
c.    Material Goods: 21% 15% 18%
d.    Purchase products: 6% 12% 8%
e.    Other: 4% 8% 6%
- “Other” usually involved personal goals such as “Security,” “Self esteem,” or “meet more people.”

I met today with a magazine, Network B, here in Japan for network marketing with our Operations Director, Kunihito Toma. I was impressed with the Editor in Chief, Takita Shozo, and his questions that he had for us.

Japan really takes network marketing serious.  Mr Shozo had very good questions about what we have experienced in the United States and what we hope to accomplish here in Japan.  The interview was a reminder to me about how important it is that we understand each market and adjust accordingly.  For example, here in Japan we are switching to a Japanese based software so that the back office can be used by the Japanese on there phones and it takes into consideration so many things American software designers are not aware of for this market.

I also spent considerable time today with Kunihito and our sales manager Endo Shin discussing how we can best take care of our ever-growing IBO base here and how to be fulfill their expectations.  I am impressed with many of our IBOs’ passion and desire to spread the word about our product and also our compensation plan.  I know that our management here truly wants to serve our IBOs and I am very positive about the growth we are about to see here.

We are constantly looking to improve our presentation of our opportunity and product, and we are constantly looking for ways to help people make more money selling our product.  I am planning on spending a couple days with our Japan staff to help complete our sales strategy for Japan similarly to how we have implemented it in the United States.  Our goal is to be a world leader in sales similarly to what we have already accomplished with our product, which is head and shoulders above other products in the market place.

One of the problems that we have run into is that the product is so much better than what else is out there, that we talk almost only about it.  We have been neglecting to spend sufficient time teaching people about our incredible opportunity.  Our comp plan is remarkable and the stories about how people are making money with it are as amazing as the product itself.  I spent six years trying to make money in network marketing as an IBO and although I had IBOs in 14 states, the compensation plan I was working with was very difficult to make money without dedicating every waking moment focused on that business.  Although the Jus plan requires diligence, it is certainly rewarding for those who decide to work the business.

My plan for the next 11 days around the world is to help people truly understand that Jus is far more than just a groundbreaking product.  The opportunity is truly special too and affords people the opportunity to make a difference in their family’s life financially and with their health.

It was a fun way to start the trip but we made it. However, our luggage did not. I will be wearing some of Stewart’s clothing until my stuff comes. We are excited to see all that is going on in Japan. Product arrives this week and we expect big things.

*****

We have been home a week and I am finally getting to updating our trip. It was amazing. We had a ton of new people come to our meetings. We also have some very experienced leaders in Japan. We are thrilled with how Japan’s first week with product went. It was nice to have Japanese leaders and new IBOs receiving checks.

The Jus office in Tokyo occupies the 5th and 6th floor near the Roppongi area. Kunio Toma and his team are doing a great job of getting the new Jus members the things that they need. Their presentation is effective and we here at corporate learned many things from them on our trip. We are modifying some of our presentation to emulate some of what they do in Japan. We already have a team of people who will be ready to provide customer service as we begin to plan to be on the ground and out of the Not for Resale period of our company there. It is exciting to see how fast they have gotten up to speed and have attracted experienced network marketers from all over the country. The last day Phil and I were in Japan, 80 new applications were turned in from areas outside of Tokyo.

Before our first opportunity meeting, we had a chance to sit down and meet some of our leaders. It was amazing to see the level of commitment and expertise that have been attracted to our meetings. The key to growing a network marketing business is attracting the right leaders. Japan has the right leaders and they are going to be integral to Japan’s success.

I am grateful I had the chance to be with the Japanese people and hope to visit frequently. It is an honor to have such great people be a part of our team.

I wanted to take a moment to also answer a couple questions from the field about our product. It is important that we avoid any false claims about what our product does and does not have. Jús is truly changing the lives of so many who are taking it. However, we are no longer flying under the radar as falsities are being alleged about our product and our opportunity in silly blogs and by intimidated competitors throughout the world. Jús Antioxidant is making an impact and, as more and more people join us, I encourage you to continue with a positive approach and not resort to insults about other opportunities as other companies are doing to us more each day. It seems the more we learn, the more we are amazed with how the product continues to positively change live. As such, I encourage everyone to continue to learn about the product.

There has been some confusion about the number of whole fruits and extracts that exist in our product. The confusion exists for different reasons, but mainly because there are so many good things in the product, it is not easy to keep them all straight.

Jús Antioxidant is a complex product which is also makes it so powerful. It would be easy if we could just say the ingredients all came in a dry frozen powder or as purees. However, it is not that simple. Jús Antioxidant has 23 ingredients in different forms combined the way they are for very specific reason. Two fruits even come in two forms. Lycium, also known as the wolfberry or as goji, exists in both a pureed berry and is also added as a juice. Pomegranate also exists as both a puree and juice.

Now, let me try to clarify how our ingredients work together to form such a powerful juice unlike any the market has seen before. Purees are wonderful due to the “living ingredients” they contain and because of their nature, which is very close to how they exist on the vine. They contain the skin, often times pieces of the seeds, and so much of what makes the whole fruit so wonderful. Extracts can be powerful because they lock in many of the nutrients and vitamins that degrade over time when the fruit comes off the vine. Herbs and mushrooms are even different and come to us in different manners so they can be added effectively into the Jús product.

Our lab made it clear that each method of processing has its benefits and detriments. That is why they encouraged such a variety of fruits, herbs and a mushroom along with a variety of methods to locking in nutrients through distinct processing methods.

EXTRACTS
Jús Antioxidant has nine extracts. Our extracts typically come to our lab through a dry freeze process. Most of the fruit or berry extracts are freeze dried shortly after being picked off the vine in order to preserve as many natural vitamins and nutrients as possible. The extracts are:
1. Grape Skin
2. Grape Seed
3. Wild Blueberry
4. Raspberry Seed
5. Cranberry
6. Tart Cherry
7. Wild Bilberry
8. Strawberry
9. Prune

FROZEN CONCENTRATE
Jús Antioxidant has one frozen concentrate. Apples are a powerful ingredient because of their nutrients, but are also effective to balance the myriad of tastes that our product contains.
1. Apple Concentrate

PUREES
Purees have so many benefits and when combined with the vitamins and minerals locked in by a dry freeze process, a puree’s “living” phyto-nutrients are even better. In order to have as many of the possible benefits as we can, our scientists combined all of our ingredients in a manner that takes the best advantage of what Mother Nature has provided us. Jús Antioxidant contains seven whole fruits and berries in puree form:
1. Acai (berry)
2. Lycium (berry)
3. Acerola (berry)
4. Aronia (berry)
5. Noni (fruit)
6. Pomegranate (fruit)
7. Seabuckthorn (berry)

HERBS AND A MUSHROOM
Our Jús also contains three herbs or portions of herbs and a mushroom. These herbs are powerful for our health and are also decaffeinated:
1. Green tea (leaf)
2. White tea (leaf)
3. Ginseng (root)
4. Reishi Mushroom (stem)

JUICES
To make the formula complete, Jús also has pure fruit juice to ensure a complete synergistic effect for our bodies:
1. Aloe Vera
2. Pomegranate
3. Wolfberry
4. Mangosteen

What Jús Antioxidant consumers and IBOs should know is that the product is not just a combination of fruits, herbs and a mushroom, but is the most well-researched and engineered formulation of natural ingredients that exists on the market today. Simply saying Jús Antioxidant has a certain amount of extracts and purees does not do the product or formulation of the product justice.

Jús International is extremely proud of its product and strives to provide ongoing and complete product education. Look for more to come.

Thanks for all your hard work,

Jeff

Defining an Emergent Category
Paul M. Gross, Phd

In 2004, the term “superfoods” was popularized by a best-selling book (1) proposing 14 whole foods with extraordinary nutrition. One – blueberries – became known as a “superfruit” (2) when its exceptional antioxidant properties were revealed by publication of USDA data on food antioxidant strength, the oxygen radical absorbance capacity or ORAC (3), ranking blueberries near the top of common plant foods.

More than a dozen industry publications for functional foods and beverages have referred to various exotic or antioxidant species as “superfruits” (4-24), yet this category presently does not have a working definition.

The purpose of this article is to give the superfruit category commercial and scientific dimensions.

Identifying Superfruits

The following list is not intended to be comprehensive, but gives names and main geographic origins for fruits (growers, manufacturers) and their products typically included in this category over 2004-present

1. Açaí (Euterpe oleracea), Brazil
2. Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium), Canada/USA
3. Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon), USA
4. Grape (red, Vitis vinifera), USA
5. Guaraná (Paullinia cupana), Brazil, Venezuela
6. Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), South Pacific Islands, Malaysia
7. Noni (Morinda citrifolia), South Pacific Islands
8. Pomegranate (Punica granatum), Mediterranean Region, USA
9. Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), China
10. Wolfberry (“goji”, Lycium barbarum), China

 

Common berries, such as strawberries, raspberries and blackberries used for a large number of consumer products, achieve many of the criteria below. They are, however, sufficiently known in the public, so do not attract interest as novelty fruits and are not usually included among superfruits.

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Jeff-
I recently became an IBO in your business. I see your vision and have the dream to live “THE LIFE”. I have 3 young children, I work as a professional firefighter here in Idaho and the truth is, it’s just not enough. Is the dream of financial independence just that for average americans like myself? I realize that if I work hard the company you’ve put your heart and soul in has promised to reward me. I am not a skeptic. I believe you get back what you put in regardless of what it is you’re pursuing in life. I would like to hear it from the source. Already I have experienced a “speed bump” or two as I begin building my business with Jus International. I sit here and type this and contemplate one decision. If I want to be free of money worries bad enough can the opportunity your company is offering take me there? I look forward to hearing from you.

J from Twin Falls, Idaho
**************************************************

I love this question. I remember when I first started network marketing. I remember how much I wanted it to work. I talked to people every day and made a ton of phone calls setting up meetings. However, it took a while before I started to see results. The results did start to happen in time, but not as fast as I wanted. If you are really hungry, it always seems to take too long. This industry is replete with stories of people who sponsor 80 percent of the people they talk to. I have never been one of those people. Diligence and persistence have always been the key for me.

Jus IBOs come to meetings now and and they see hundreds of people and think that is how it always was. Before we had our product developed and our marketing plan implemented, I was the only person attempting to recruit new people for our business. It was not easy in the beginning to sell an idea about the possibility of a new company. When you are sitting in front of the phone after experiencing some rejection, you must remember why you are doing this. “The Life” is different to everyone, but you cannot forget your dreams as you are putting together the foundations of greatness for your Jus business.

Persistence and belief is so important in this business. Get with someone in your upline that inspires you. Spend time each day reading books that teach you how to work with people. Take the product, eat right and exercise. The most important thing of all to help maintain your motivation is to remember WHY you are doing this. When you have the right why, the answers become more clear. This IBO seems to have 3 very good reasons. Taking care of them can be a huge motivator.

Thanks for the question, and I wish you huge success.

Jeff

The party was just that, a party. We had ice sculptors, shot glasses filled with Jus Antioxidant and plasma televisions showing our latest company overview.

The next day we had a training and recognized the many developing leaders within Jus. For me it was very exciting to see our vision of professional people enjoying themselves, making money, and helping others improve their health with our incredible Jus Antioxidant.

Thank you to everyone who came to both events. They were an amazing success. Check out the photos below. I am also including a video by someone who attended the event. We will have a company video coming out showing what happened at the event later on.

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If you were in attendance at our pre-launch event, you probably noticed our cobalt-blue Yamaha Vino scooter, adorned in Jus decals. We want to give all Jús distributors the chance to win this scooter!

The official rules are as follows:

• Jús Independent Business Owners who signed up for the $499.95 kit are eligible for the promotion
• Jús IBOs have until midnight on June 30, 2008 when the promotion ends
• Jús distributors will earn 2 points for every new enrollee they sign up for the $499.95 kit on their first level (E1)
• Jús distributors will earn 1 point for every new enrollee they sign up for the $499.95 kit on their second level (E2)
• The IBO who earns the most points wins the promotion
• In the case of a tie, the IBO with the largest group will win Grand Prize: The IBO who earns the most points by June 30, 2008 will win a cobalt-blue 2008 Yamaha Vino scooter.

This economic, environmentally-friendly and fun scooter gets 100 miles-per-gallon. Because we want the winner to safely drive away on their new bike, we will throw in a helmet decked out in Jús decals.